Shopping my Wardrobe - My Year Without Clothes Shopping

We Have Moved!

2010-09-15T06:33:00.003+10:00

Hello! Thanks for stopping by! We outgrew this space and had to pack up and move! It's an exciting move though, and we're happy to be in our new home (the packing wasn't so fun, but not one plate was broken (although we did crack a couple of glasses)).

So this blog can now be found by clicking here or copying and pasting this into your Internet browser: www.shopyourwardrobe.com/blog

Come see us there! We'll sit on the verandah, put our feet up, watch the sunset, have a glass of something nice to drink.... it'll be fun!

Sydney Style

2010-09-12T16:18:00.007+10:00

Hello and welcome to blog #70! I've been in Sydney for the last few days. Gotta love that city! It is Australia's edgiest and paciest city - I think I can say that without fear of too much heated debate. Sydney is a bit of a siren herself, don't you think? It is a city that just demands to be looked at in awe. It demands attention and mostly, we're happy to give it.

Just on that "siren" thing that I wrote about in the last blog piece... I've been trying out those four personality dressing names since they came out of the vault that is my brain. (for those who need a quick reminder, the names are: The Suit, The Siren, The Subversive and The Sandwich... or just go back to that post and read it again).

Do they fit? At this national conference I've been attending, and in my own observations in walking around the Emerald City, I've been 'trying on' those categories -- you know, applying them to real live breathing human women and seeing if they 'fit' or not. And you know what I've discovered? Those categories really work! You can see people who are dressed as Sandwiches or Sirens, Suits or Subversives... And you can also see those women who have combined two categories -- Suited Sirens or Subversive Sandwiches.

And you know what else I discovered? Those categories generate a lot of discussion -- every single woman I have mentioned them to wants to know more. They say "what's a Sandwich? And how do you know I am one?". I was also asked "how am I a Suit? How am I dressing that makes me one?". And my favourite was "how could I be more like a Siren?". Women get those categories, and they seem to like them. Who'd've thunk it, from all that silliness?

I'll write more about those categories in an upcoming post - there's clearly more to explore. For today, let's talk about where style really comes from. Clue: not from the mall. But I don't want to give away the ending straight away, so please read on!

"When you don't shop, you have better style". Ok, that's an attention grabbing statement, right? I love it! And I can say all that because I didn't write it. Sarah Wilson did. Sarah is a journalist and writes her own blog as well as being published in an actual print publication - the Sunday Life supplement of the Sun-Herald newspaper. Sarah wrote a piece today on "I don't buy style". Well, pack my bags and mount my horse, if that doesn't get me reading this article in double quick time! I sped through her article, then re-read it to make sure I'd caught the heart of what she'd said.

Here are my favourite bits (called "excerpts" in the literary world, I believe) from Sarah's article:

"when you don't shop, you have better style".... Ms Wilson goes on to 'splain why this is true in her case. She found herself treasure hunting through her wardrobe and discovering all manner of gems that she combined in new and jaunty ways (the Thai silk matinee jacket teamed with the animal print cami was my favourite of those she described - go figure). Could it really be true that style isn't found in the mall? Whoa.

"the momentum to shop builds. And then... I get a grip. Do I really need to trek to the mall?" Indeed. And a great example of how a well-placed rhetorical question can actually be useful. I love how Ms Wilson describes the momentum to shop -- how the pull of shopping yanks at our sense of adventure, our sense of self and our sense of escape. It distorts and deranges (to borrow heavily from the lyrics of Annie Lennox) and the only way out is to WAKE UP and get that grip that Ms Wilson suggests. She suggests we ask ourselves if we really need to trek to the mall? Who but the most unconscious of individuals (or those in desperate need of toilet paper and corn flakes) would say YES to that question? The underlying question seems to be: What if what lies within the walls of the mall is not the answer we're really seeking? Oooh, that's deep. It's amazing that something considered so superficial has the ability to plumb such depths, isn't it? Oh, and if you're wondering, I'm guessing the answer is behind door #2 and is: "no, the answer isn't at the mall", aren't you?

"how limiting it is to constantly reach for external solutions... buying something new and "fashionable" (her quotes, yesiree) is all about reaching for an external style salve at the expense of playing freely with your own identity". Oh, my. Now if that doesn't echo and build on a point of view I've been playing with on this-a-here-y blog over the last few months, I'll walk to the Gulf in those animal print wedges that make me about 6 foot 2 from blog #5. I love the link to identity that Ms Wilson sneaks into that sentence. It's like she knows how much depth there is to this topic (shopping isn't really just shopping), but she doesn't want to scare us. It's Sunday, after all. There's football to be watched and naps to be taken. I love how accessible she makes it -- "playing freely with your own identity"... like anyone can do it. We can all play, right? If not the French horn, then at least with the contents of our own wardrobes. And once we start playing at that level, we get to glimpse our identity through a new lens. Who knows what we might discover?

I love finding other people who's thinking matches my own. Like someone who agrees that Woody Allen's movies are not all the same. Or I really can continue to eat chocolate whenever I feel like it after turning 4o. And that shopping is not the answer. It's not even the question.

Thank you Sarah Wilson - I'm with you on your experiential journey to make life more meaningful, happier, sweeter. And I like your style. And I like it even more because it didn't come from the mall. Right?

Dressing for the Many Me's

2010-09-06T12:28:00.010+10:00

G'day and welcome to blog #69. Exactly ten blog posts ago, in the oft-referenced blog #59, I gave a working definition for the term Shop your Wardrobe. I talked then about how you didn't have to be a world-class thinker like Carl Jung to know that people come in all kinds of personality packages. And this is how nature intended us to be - different.

Knowing a bit about your personality is one useful key in creating a wardrobe that really works for you. Why and how is this so?

Express and inform. Repeat twice. Rinse well. Clothing both expresses something about who we are and informs us on who we are. Clothing shouldn't define us - that limits us and gives our clothing too much power. But when we see clothing as a way to express some part of who we are, then clothing becomes fun, it becomes one way to let others know something about who we are. Not everything about who we are, note. Clothing can be as powerful as the words we use to express who we are.

Clothing can also inform. If you've ever put on a particular item of clothing and felt great, and yet another item of clothing makes you feel uncomfortable and 'less than', you'll know what I mean. Knowing what makes you feel like your "best you" helps you make better choices in what you buy, and what you choose to wear each day. Make sense?

Thank you Meredith Brooks. Of course, there's always the "multiple personalities" that most of us live with to consider, too. As Meredith Brooks sang in the now iconic 'Bitch' song, most women living outside of a cave these days have more than one role to fulfil. More hats than one to wear. Although hopefully less personalities than Sybil to befriend.

I personally can relate to the "sinner" and "saint" line of the 'Bitch' song chorus, although I'm not prepared to give details. On occasion, I'm sure my nearest and dearest could relate to the "I'm your hell" line, although I'm sure they mean that in the nicest possible way (you know, fiery).

So I get that whole I'm more than one me thing. By sharing the following categories I'm not suggesting that we fulfil only one of them. Some days I fulfil 1.26 of the following roles and other days I do each twice before lunch. Some days I mix 'em up so I'm a bit of everything, and other days I barely make it into one category (Some days I'm sure that I'm half a Sandwich).

You're probably the same, right? Not one of us can be placed neatly into a box. And thank the reclining couch for that! How dull would it be if we were all the same?

Oh! Before you read on, read this first. The four categories below are metaphors, which means they're not meant to be read literally. What this actually means is I made these categories up, and I had my tongue firmly in my cheek as I did it. So, just because you relate to The Suit doesn't mean you actually wear a suit.

So, what are the four styles of dressing? Check out the image that accompanies this post, top left. I'll wait here whilie you have a quick look at it. (dum de dum.... ) You can see a difference between each of those four styles, right? Each of the four styles represents one of the four styles I've described below. I'm sure you've already worked out which picture goes with which category, right?

Worth noting that each style has something fabulous to offer, and yet none of them is right for all occasions. Which is pretty darn neat, because we aren't either. Right?

Here they are! Try these on for size:

The Suit. This style takes its cue from the structured garment of its name - before one word is even spoken, you know what you're getting and it's something you can depend on. Clothing tends to be tailored and classic with predictable shapes and appropriate lengths. There is not a lot of excess skin on show - buttons are for doing all the way up. Colours tend to be neutral and strong, which is also how they generally like their elected representatives. Confidence-inspiring patterns like stripes make an appearance alongside tailored pants and straight skirts in colours like navy, grey and black. With very little additional effort, you can be ready to attend a job interview or a funeral at a moments notice.

The Siren. This style takes its cues from the flashing, loud apparatus that sits atop emergency vehicles. You can't miss it, even if you desperately want to. We're meant to look, and once we start, it's hard to look away. We see more skin than with our Suit style sisters, and there's often a dramatic hue and unexpected drape that draws the eye. Cleavage, of both the breast and toe variety, is fair game. Patterns include anything eye catching, such as geometric and animal, although faux is best (no squares were hurt in the making of this geometric scarf!). With only a small adjustment to your perfect pout, you'll be ready to .... well, do anything really.

The Subversive. This style is inconveniently erratic and takes its cues from nobody, thank you very much! Or perhaps more accurately, they take their cue from everybody. Mixing eras and styles with a triumph of individuality over conventional aesthetics, The Subversive style goes to extremes. No make-up or a face full of it. Patterns and colours are mixed together to create a volcanic ensemble that raises both the eyebrows and the curiosity of the observer. Orange teams up with turquoise, lime green with bubble gum pink, and that's just the underwear. With a swipe of bright orange lipstick, you'll be ready to join the cast and crew of the Cirque du Soleil.

The Sandwich. This style takes its cue from the casual culinary style that the sandwich epitomizes. The Sandwich style of dressing places comfort in the priority position. Colours soothe the eye and fabrics soothe the skin - white cotton, pale blue linen, grey soft wool. We may see a subtle pattern but we're more likely to see block colours teamed together to create a just-crawled-into-this look that gives new meaning to the term laid back. Effect is kept to a minimum, which coincides with the amount of overt effort put into this relaxed look. At any point in time, The Sandwich style is ready to take a stroll or take a nap.

Ok, so what does all this mean? Apart from the fact that I'm either a very creative thinker or slightly deranged and a little bit dangerous. (by the way, I should mention that this entire post has taken me aaaages to write. I just hope it's taken you nearly as long to read).

Repeat twice. Here's how you can use this deliriously prepared information to help you in your quest to create a wardrobe that's working harder than you are:

dressing for your personality on any given day will help create a look that expresses something important about who you are. At least for that moment in time. This should not limit or define you in any constricted way. But if you want to impress a client with your creativity, then the navy blue suit teamed with a white shirt and black pumps is probably not going to do it (although you may calm them with your capability in such an ensemble). Right?
dressing for your personality on any given day will support who you are and who you want to be. If you've been paying attention and tuning in, then you know how much clothing forms a continuous feedback loop with how you feel. Don't dress like a Siren on a Sandwich day, not unless you want to feel out of kilter for 8 hours. Right?
use these categories to have some fun and add some variety. If you're going on a date (even with your husband of many years, or perhaps someone else's husband of many years), try out the Siren and draw some attention to yourself! If you usually play it safe with The Suit (or the Sandwich, or a combo of the two - the Suited Sandwich), mix it up a bit and get Subversive. Try on different looks and see how they expand your definition of yourself! Clothing should be fun!

Dressing for the many yous that exist shouldn't be a burden. If you have a 'portfolio' life that contains a bit of this, a smattering of that, and dose of the other, then embracing the many yous in how you dress may be one of life's unexplored joys. Go out and have fun with it! Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go and wind up that siren. I've got some noise to make. Right?

No Stockists Page Required!

2010-09-01T11:20:00.003+10:00

A hail and hearty hello from deepest Wednesday, dear reader! We're up to blog #68 and today I'd like to talk to you about something that I've been pondering for some time.

Fashion magazines. Sigh! Love 'em. Loathe 'em. They both inspire and infuriate. Raise and lower self-esteem. They're a conundrum. Wrapped in a riddle. Tied up with a piece of paradox string.

Ludicrous, I say! The fashion spreads are often ludicrous. They're often so artfully produced that you can't identify the items of clothing that are being featured. The lighting is arty, creating a am I really seeing that? effect. The models are often reed thin, unnaturally tall and super young. They look like giraffes that have just been born. All legs. The locations are bizarrely exotic. I mean, do we really need to see fall fashions displayed with the backdrop of a Marrakesh marketplace? If so, why? Apart from providing an opportunity for the model, photographer, stylist, wardrobe person, make up artistes and other associated crew to travel, I'm not sure what the purpose is.

I don't get a lot of fashion spreads in fashion magazines, as can plainly be seen. I make no apology for the lack of understanding I have about fashion spreads.

But not all of them..... There are some magazines that make their fashion spreads easier to, shall we say, access. In Style is one such magazine. You can actually identify the items of clothing they are showcasing (ah - it's a trench coat! with jeans! and ballet flats! riiiiight - got it!) .

Oh, Ita.... Way back when the media doyenne Ita Buttrose was editor of the Australian Women's Weekly, she instituted fashion pages where one could not only identify the items on display, but one could imagine oneself actually wearing them. Ground-breaking!

And the problem would be....??? Fashion spreads in magazines can create a burning want, a yearning desire, for something we never knew existed until we laid eyes on it. There we were, happily living our lives, and wham! We see an animal print trench coat (well, name your desired object here) and we want it. We crave it. We wish to possess and make it all meynne!

We become infatuated with a man-made inanimate object that we are somehow convinced will fulfil an emotional need. We'll feel happy, or something, when we own it. We'll be content, when the object of our desire is turned into our possession and hanging in our wardrobe.

Except we don't. Feel happy, that is. Or if we do, it doesn't last long. It only lasts until we turn the page, metaphorically or literally, and see yet another thing that our heart desires (well, we think it's our heart -- it sure ain't our brain making these evaluations).

So, there we are... our emotional state in something we could call yearning... and we see those words in fine print. The stockists information. Telling us how much the item is and where we can purchase it. Ah! Emotional release is at hand -- we can turn our yearning into relief by purchasing the item! Hooray!

Disclaimer: not all magazines with fashion spreads produce fashion spreads which then produce this result for all readers all of the time. Naturally. But enough magazines with fashion spreads produce enough fashion spreads which produce enough of this result for many readers much of the time. Got that?

Now, does this mean I am against fashion spreads in magazines? Well, you may be surprised to hear the answer is... no. I'm not. I actually think they can serve a very useful purpose. They can:

show us what's current. If looking contemporary and reasonably up-to-date is important to you, this is handy info to have
show us how to put different outfit combinations together. For those of us who can get a bit bored with mixing and matching the same pieces together all the time, this can be a shot of inspiration that has us creating new looks and fulfilling a need for variety

These are good things. Helpful things. And fashion magazines are in a perfect position to bring them to us.

What comes with it, often, is the manufactured need to go shopping. We feel something might be missing from our own wardrobe, and we have to go get it and fill that gap. This is not such a good thing.

So what's the alternative? Ah, well, that's the thing, isn't it? Before we get to that, let me show you this, dear reader!

Stealing the Look -- one way to go.... The photo accompanying today's piece is from a rather inspiring blog called Steal the Look for Le$$. I love the idea this blog is based on -- take a photo of a celebrity wearing an outfit that we like and would like to create for ourselves. Ms Gucci (the blog owner, I swear I could find no other name on the blog by which to identify the creator of these looks) then gives us a pictorial display of the outfit's, er, components + she gives us some options of where we can procure each item at a cheaper price. Neat, huh?

This site is very creative and provides some helpful information. If you want to follow in the sartorial footsteps of certain celebrities, of course. Which some of us do, and some of us do not. But, all in all, I'd say this site is a positive thing.

What I take out of it is some ideas on how I could look at my own wardrobe differently. What fresh take could I put on existing items, to freshen up my look? To create some variety?

How about this? And this is one alternative that fashion spreads could take. Instead of showing us combinations made up of new items that must be purchased.... they could show us combinations of outfits we could create out of our existing items. Sure, they'd have to tell us what those core items were. Naturally. But they could take some fairly educated guesses at basic pieces most of us would have - like jeans and tailoured jackets and coloured t-shirts and plain pants and white shirts and long-sleeve t-shirts and black pants and so on.

And then they could give us a list of options on how to add 'missing' pieces to our look, without breaking the bank or even buying new. Such as swapping, consignment or op-shopping.

Now we're cooking....Now, that'd be fairly neat. I'd be interested to read an article like that. How much more creative would that be? How much more inspiring? And how much more sustainable would that be? Damn straight. Right?

Airport Security

2010-08-29T13:44:00.004+10:00

Greetings dear reader to a confused Sunday here. We've had sunshine, we've had showers, I'm expecting a windstorm at any moment. It's like a James Taylor song.

We're up to blog #67 today. I'd like to chat today about the impact that airport security has had on the fashion world. Well, not so much the fashion world, but us as people who wear fashion. Or clothes, which may or may not be fashionable.

Shoe me!... The first contribution that airport security has made is that we are now a lot more aware of the kind of socks and hosiery that people wear beneath their shoes. I feel sorry for the airport security people, having to handle our stinky shoes. But there we all are - taking off our shoes and surrendering our stockinged feet to airport flooring.

Particular shoes are singled out, I've noticed - it has to do with the heel. I'm not entirely certain, but particular heels are more conducive to holding any number of ingredients capable of being mixed with certain toothpastes, hair gels and liquids to form a combustible liquid, mixed up in the plane's loo.

I wore a pair of high heeled boots on an international flight to San Francisco once. Including the two stopovers I had between Brisbane and San Francisco, and the multiple security points I had to endure because I was not carrying US identity documentation, I took those boots off and put them back on a total of six times at airport security stations. I wanted to surrender them to an airport bin by the time I arrived.

Press me! The other thing I've noticed at airport security are the wands they wave over a "randomly selected" passenger, which they then test for traces of something. Explosive particles or dandruff, perhaps. You know, if they made those devices heated, one could get a nice press of one's jacket and pants while we were at it. Then we'd arrive at our destinations not only declared a safe traveller, but freshly pressed as well. We might not mind being "randomly selected", either, if this little laundry service was included, mightn't we?

Just on this, I was once "randomly selected" at Heathrow to be patted down. I was a bit tired and grumpy from a long flight (I think it was from Minneapolis) so wasn't too keen on it. But you have to be courteous, or at least not rude, to airport security people, don't you? They can hold you for the length of time a root canal takes with no provocation or explanation. So, you don't want to annoy them.

Anyway, I was randomly selected to be patted down. Well, this very tall and rather attractive security woman did the patting. It was actually quite relaxing, and quite intimate in a pervy kind of way. I stood there with my feet hip-width apart and my arms out to my sides. She ran her hands from my shoulders to my fingertips and back again underneath my arms. Then down my ribcage and across my stomach. Down the outside of my legs and up the, er, inside (stopping at a discrete non-body-contact point). I felt like we should have perhaps exchanged phone numbers after it. That, or asked if she did full body massage. She had a nice touch. For a security person.

Strip it! The other thing that you sometimes have to do at airport security is remove clothing items with metal on them. Like belts. I was travelling through Sydney airport to Melbourne earlier this year, and was in a rush. I had my carry-on bag and seemingly every other bag in New South Wales with me - I felt like a sherpa. I forgot about my belt, and went through the thing which then beeped like crazy. So, I dashed back through ("sorry, sorry"-ing the people behind me, waiting to go through the thing), threw my belt on the conveyor belt, dashed back through the thing, which did not bleep. I then picked up my bags and ran to the gate.

Oh darn! It was only when I was on the plane that I had a sudden shocking awareness - I'd left my belt at airport security! Oh, no! I may or may not have said "oh darn". The vowel "o" was certainly involved, and the final word may have had four letters in it.

Y'see, this was no ordinary black leather belt. It was a very fancy pants animal print "bling" belt that I'd bought in San Francisco in November 2009. It was not only an expensive belt, a belt I loved, but it was the belt that had caused me to realise that I had to stop spending. And hence, precipitated this very challenge I am now writing to you about from post #67.

So it was a meaningful belt. Well, I was sitting next to this rather seat-filling gent who preceded to tell me all about every single corporate training event he'd ever attended, and the unique contribution he had made to each and every one of them (I had foolishly told him that I was on my way to Melbourne to run a corporate training workshop). I tried to pay attention, I tried to paste a look on my face that indicated I was vaguely interested. But I was really thinking about my belt.

When I arrived in Melbourne, I bolted to the Baggage Services people, who sanguinely told me that if I rang this number, my belt would be put in a bag and sent to Melbourne, wherein I could pick it up at the airport on my return. This turned out to be utter crap, as I learned when I phoned that number.

It was a recorded message that informed me that they only worked between the hours of 7.00 and 8.15am, and the only time you could pick up lost items was between the hours of 1.00 and 1.07pm. Ok, that's not exactly true, but the hours they worked were similarly unhelpful. I left a message, trying not to panic or repeat myself more than four times. "The belt is animal print, with these big bling-y circles, and the buckle is a big bling-y circles. and did I mention it's animal print?". There was just something about the Whole Thing that made me uneasy.

Ninja Julie to the rescue? Unable to be mollified by the recorded phone message, I enlisted the help of Ninja Julie, who was travelling to Melbourne the very next day. Her flight took off at 7.00am, making it very difficult for her to get to the lost'n'found department at its stated opening hours. Being a gal who's stimulated by challenges, Ninja Julie took this as a test of her personal effectiveness, and pledged to get me my belt back.

Bzzz, bzzz. The next morning at 6.45am, my phone bzzz-bzzed to tell me a text had come in. It was from Ninja Julie - she had gotten my belt back. Unbelievable! She'd turned up to the Baggage Services counter at 6.35am, which is immediately adjacent to the Lost and Found department at Sydney Airport. There was no-one at the L'n'F, but there was a quaintly bureaucratic "service" person manning the Baggage Services counter. Ninja Julie asked the BS person when the L'n'F counter opened. 7.00am was the stern response. Knowing that she'd be ascending into the skies at that time, Ninja Julie asked if she could access the L'n'F cupboard now. No was the economical reply.

I haff vays of makingkh you.... Ninja Julie then proceeded to apply verbal Chinese water torture to the BS person, saying that a phone message had been left on the L'n'F hotline, that she could describe the item in detail, that it was a small item, that she was about to board a plane to the outer Hebrides and may not return for years upon which time the woman finally said "AWRIGHT! What does it look like?". A full description then passed Ninja Julie's lips, and the BS woman retreated into the L'n'F cupboard to see if said item was, indeed, in residence.

She returned and pronounced that yes, the animal print bling-y belt was there. But she couldn't give it to Ninja Julie because the L'n'F people didn't get there until 7.00am. By this time, Ninja Julie's flight was being called. More verbal Chinese water torture was applied, which yielded the surprising result of the BS woman going back into the L'n'F cupboard, retrieving animal print, bling-y belt, exiting the room and throwing the belt at Ninja Julie.

Yes, she threw it at her. Ninja Julie actually had to catch it. We could wax lyrical for several more minutes about the appropriateness or otherwise of the BS person's behaviour. But let's not, because the story has such a happy ending. I got my belt back! My beautiful, expensive, meaningful belt.

Is the story finished yet? So, there's 4 minutes of reading time that you'll never get back. I know. But it's such a great example of the impact that airport security has had on our travelling lives.

Remember the days....I love watching movies from the 1970s - it's one of my favourite eras. What's so charming and nostalgic about some of them are the scenes set in airports. With people going from check-in to gate with nary a stop in between, except to the restroom or public telephone. There's no airport security. There's no laptops at all, let alone any to be taken out of their cases and placed in large Tupperware boxes for screening for last year's version of Windows. There's no "random selecting" of dark-haired and swarthy male passengers for additional security screening. All that was in front of us. Including those of us still in primary school (which I'm compelled to tell you that I was, in the 1970s).

Has it really? Yes, Chuck, I'm afraid it has. Airport security has changed the way we travel, it's impact is indelible. It's also changed how we feel about public undressing and personal modesty. Right?

Hoodwnked: A Trinket Economy

2010-08-24T15:31:00.003+10:00

Greetings from the deepest of August days. Here we are at blog #66. I've been reading this fascinating book, Hoodwinked. It's written by John Perkins who is a self-confessed Economic Hit Man. Apparently, that was a real job (could still be one for all we know -- it's shrouded in mystery, the economic hit man business).

Mr Perkins is talking about how and why the financial markets imploded to create the GFC we've all been trying to get over (like a bad break-up, just when the pain seems to be nearly over, wham! you're watching a toilet roll commercial and crying like a baby, all over again).

Trinket Economy. He talks about the "trinket economy" where poor quality crap nobody needs is produced and marketed to us, the sucker consumer. That we buy this unneeded stuff is the exclamation point to that sentence. Trinket economies are doomed to failure. We've all participated in the creation of this trinket economy -- the trinket makers, the trinker marketers, the trinket salesmen, the trinket buyers, the trinket resellers on eBay. No-one is blameless. And that's just the introduction to the book. There's more.

Flattened. Mr Perkins says that our human psychology is particularly sensitive, suggestive and fragile to these marketing messages of the trinketeers. We're convinced that more, and more, and more, is what we need to make us happy. So we buy more and more of this useless crap and no-one is there to put the brake on either our thinking, or our spending. Until .... a GFC comes along that literally blows us out of our houses with a gale force wind of consumer debt proportions.

It's an uplifting kind of book.

Unwinking the hood: He says that to get the hood off our wink, here's what we need to all do, in five easy steps (just add water):

accept consumer responsibility

create a new economy

adopt attitudes that encourage good stewardship and make icons of a new type of hero

implement new rules for business and government

honor our individual passions

So I don't want to go all heavyosity here on you. It being a Tuesday and everything. But I did read those words and think.... "hmmmm. that's kind of what My Year Without Clothes Shopping (MYWCS) is all about...". No, really! And I wasn't under the influence of any chemical substances at the time (although I may have overdosed on Lemongrass and Ginger tea - knockout combo).

So, how is MYWCS anything like the unhoodwinking strategy that a brain the size of Mr Perkins has come up with? Let's try this on for size:

accept consumer responsibility. Well, that's a no brainer. Surely? I'm accepting responsibility for my own spending... and through this challenge, my own thinking about my own spending. But my spending about my thinking about my spending, well that's another matter. Seriously, that's a big check! Done! Dots connected on that one. Right?

create a new economy. Well, clearly this is something that I can't control or even influence if you think of it in terms of the nation's or the world's economy. Even if you think of in terms of my suburb's economy, really. But I am creating a new economy within my own family unit. We're living simply -- "Have fun with frugality. You can!" - and spending less. Well, spending nothing on clothes, as you know. So, depending on how flexible your definition of "economy" is, this one gets a big check! Dots connected! mark, too. Right?

adopt attitudes that encourage good stewardship and make icons out of a new type of hero. Well, two things here -- good stewardship and new types of heroes. I love the word "steward", and not just because I read a lot of Dick Francis in my 20s. If we see ourselves as the stewards of all we think we own, it changes our attitudes. Right? If I'm a good steward of all I think of as mine -- my house, my cat, my relationships, my clothes, those 65 shoes left in my wardrobe, my neighbourhood, my country -- then the way I take care of those things has got to improve. Yeah? And as for creating new types of heroes, I'm all for that. We've made heroes of people who don't deserve that status, and I'm thinking specifically of celebrities here. It's utter madness. Madness, I tell you! Ok, enough of that. But clearly, MYWCS strives to encourage good stewardship -- of all that I have now in my wardrobe, of my credit rating, and my overall sanity -- and to make icons out of a new type of hero. We may not know precisely who those heroes are just yet, but we know who they aren't. Paris Hilton and her BFFFFFFs for a start. So a big check! Dots connected there. Right?

implement new rules for business and government. Ok, this is where the dots get a bit far apart. MYWCS is not looking to influence the government or even business, for that matter. Although, hmmmm, let me ponder that for 4.2 seconds longer. I wouldn't mind influencing the retail sector. This one is a bit of a stretch, but in principle, MYWCS lines up very closely with this one.

honour our individual passions. Ah, well this is another no brainer, surely? MYWCS is all about honouring passions. This entire 12 month challenge is about a passion gone unchecked, that's now being honoured by not indulging it. If that convoluted logic is even possible to follow. I'm honouring my passion for clothes by enjoying and using more fully the ones that I have. I'm honouring my passion for shopping by recognising how much I enjoy it and also acknowledging the dark side of it. There's no Batman without Heath Ledger. So, I'm saying check! Dots connected! on this one, too. Right?

I Think Therefore ... You know, this is the first time I've taken the work of a "thinker" like John Perkins and applied it to this challenge. When I first started this challenge, I didn't think of it as having any kind of lofty purpose. And I'm not saying it now has one.

But I am aware that it's movement on the path of "better". Better thinking, better spending, better living. To live well with what you've got. Isn't that a live well lived?

The hood is off. There's no winking going on. Thank you Mr Perkins for Hoodwinked. In stores everywhere. Sure opened my eyes. Right?

Only 6 Items

2010-08-20T14:59:00.003+10:00

Greetings and welcome to #65, dear readers. I'm back in the land of sunshine, although sunshine is in scant supply on this overcast Friday. We're in the home stretch of winter here so I should make the most of the shorter days and lower temperatures.

We're also heading into voting weekend here in Australia. Who will it be? The redhead or the Speedo wearer? We are so spoiled for choice here in this country, tell ya.

Six or Less. Egad. So, there's a NY Times article that I read recently about a challenge that a couple of women in America started called Six Items or Less. The challenge lasted for 31 days and the "sixers", as they were called, had to wear those six, and only those six, items for the full 31 days.

Benefits being....?? Sixers found all kinds of 'benefits' to the challenge, including not being so stressed in the mornings about what they were going to wear. They stopped over-thinking their ensemble for the day (seeing as there was none).... and the conclusion was that because they could take this off the mental agenda, they had more brain space for more important things.

Best part of the day.... Maybe that's so. I find that so fascinating. Y'see, I love getting dressed in the morning. Sometimes it's the best part of my day - things can sometimes go downhill from there. So, taking that away the choosing of what to wear in the mornings might actually be a negative for me.

I'll take black. Oh, and another black. And could you throw in one more black.... Here's what else is fascinating about the Six Items or Less thingo: the items people chose to include for their 31 days. The ones that were showcased as part of the media piece (and can be found on their site) were all basics. Plain, neutral colours (lotsa black) + plainly constructed items. No fru-fru skirts in fuchsia. No zebra print jeans. No thigh-length leather jackets in sunshine yellow. The items people chose seemed to be a lot like these:

black t-shirt or tank top

black jeans or pants

black dress or skirt

black jacket or blazer

blue jeans or shorts

white or semi-neutral t-shirt (and by semi-neutral I mean those perennially safe colours such as a blue or pale pink t-shirt)

There's a theme to those six items, isn't there? A definite consistency, I note, in those items. The presence of items in the colour range near or approximating "black" is possibly the most note-worthy thing (a bit like the collection of black items in the photo accompanying this piece, really). I wonder if that's because the ladies who started this challenge are New Yorkers? They like a lot of black there, in the Big Apple, don't they? A bit like Melbourne in that regard. Not a lot of duck-egg blue overcoats in Melbourne, I noted, when I was there over the last 10 days. Except for mine, of course.

Jazzed up. It should be added that "sixers" were allowed to bring in accessories to jazz up their outfits - belts, jewellery, tights, shoes, underwear -- these were excluded from the "six". And thank Manolo Blahnik for that, I say. You'd go rigid with boredom otherwise, wouldn't you?

Uniform? I asked some fabulous women lately about their shopping and 'working wardrobe' challenges. It was fascinating to hear what they had to say. Clothes are not just clothes - whether we love 'em or hate 'em, love or loathe shopping - clothing evokes emotions. Not sure that's true? I don't mind a bit of healthy skepticism, so that's ok. Get your mind around this one then:

One of the women who responded to my crafty questions said she found it tiring and frustrating to sort out her clothes for the day and was thinking of starting to wear a "uniform". You know, the same outfit every day. Like Wilma Flinstone or Betty Rubble from The Flinstones (no matter how many times you watch that show, Wilma's always wearing that white strapless number with the zigzag hem and those white beads in a choker necklace, isn't she?). Kinda like the "sixers" but even more austere - there'd be no choice at all in her daily wear.

Now who'd say something like that except someone who has a strong emotional response to clothing? Of course, she is more down the "loathe" end of the spectrum, granted. But she's far from neutral. She cares about clothes - it's just in the form of abhorrence than adoring.

More deviance please! That kind of undeviating consistency in daily outfit choice isn't for me. I don't want to wear a daily uniform, or feel the need to evacuate that part of my morning routine by removing all choice in what I wear on a daily basis. I love clothes and enjoy the variety, choice and diversity that a large wardrobe provides.

But I say - go uniform (or "sixer") if you want to. What's the worst that could happen? Well, according to the sixers who participated in the 31-day challenge, some people close to them (like husbands, and workmates who sat next to them every day) didn't even notice they were wearing the same gear, day after day.

Which says to me: dressing for the day should be about you -- expressing and informing some essential element of you-ness. Not about dressing for others. Now, I realise that the entire Real Housewives reality TV franchise would fall into a pit of oblivion if more women lived their lives on that principle. But I don't care about them. I care about you. So, wear six items for a month, wear 66 or 366. Just don't wear 666. It's bad luck. Right?

Too Cool

2010-08-17T09:54:00.003+10:00

Welcome and greetings from a brisk 6 degrees in Melbourne. We're up to blog #64 and in a recent weekend magazine piece, the fashion editor was talking about fashion trends. It struck me as being a particularly fascinating and perhaps over-looked perspective about this thing called fashion. She was talking about the early-adopters of fashion trends and how they are often too cool for school.

Here's what Rachel Wells from The Age had to say in this piece:

Take it away, Rachel: "It occurred to me recently that people are often ostracised just as much for being [too] fashionable as they are for being unfashionable..... it seems people are equally amused by those who jump on the latest fashion craze as they are by those trapped in some kind of fashion time warp. This only really struck me the other morning when I caught myself chuckling at a young guy on his way to the tram stop wearing a pair of black leggings, a tailored sports jacket complete with a hood and an over sized woollen snood. He was the most "on trend" guy I'd seen in weeks, yet there I was giggling like a school girl".

Snood - but only if it's over sized. The photo to the right was as close as I could find that might be what Ms Wells encountered at the tram stop. Note the oversize snood. I didn't even know what a snood was until I Googled it last night. Let alone know that they come in sizes up to "over-sized". One would imagine a "regular" would be sufficient, right? Clearly not.

I was so relieved this piece. I've mused before about my view of those extravagant haute coutre fashion shows and what their real purpose surely must be. I've scratched my head at fashion merchandising, wondering about what's in and why. I have wondered why we are collectively manhandled by the fashion world into striving to constantly be "in fashion" which translates to constantly be "in consumption". Does it ever become too much?

Clearly, the answer is yes. Not only does it translate into over sized snoodling, which can't be good for you on a constant basis. But it translates into over sized credit card bills as well. Combined together, this has got to be deadly.

Meaning.... In all my musing on this blog, one thing I have never questioned is that clothes mean something. Clothes don't mean everything, sure, but they mean more than nothing. Why else is Australia having a debate right now, at the highest political levels, about the wearing of the burqa? Both the Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard (at the time of writing), and the leader of the opposition, Tony Abbott, were last night on the documentary granddaddy of them all, Four Corners, both commenting on the "burqa issue".

Laughing and pointing. No thanks. Back to Ms Wells of The Age. She says that she doesn't want to be laughed at behind her back or pointed at in public for being so fashion forward that she looks like she may be off to a steam punk costume party. Many, including my good self, would relate to that (so few of us these days actually enjoy being the object of abject ridicule - where has our fighting spirit gone?).

Fashionable? Or is that ridiculous? I can't quite tell.....So, where does the line between being fashionable end and being ridiculous start? I wonder if being fashionable is achievable, it's so elusive and capricious.... Trying to be constantly in fashion is like being inside a tornado - you never know which way and when the wind will turn, and if you'll end up with a flatbed truck landing on top of you. Metaphorically speaking, of course. I'm fairly certain that constantly being in fashion is not desirable. It's just the wrong thing to be striving for.

Expression... or delusion...And where is the line between self-expression and self-delusion (accompanied by bleatings of baaaa-baaa, in a sheep-like fashion)? I want to be me, just not a ridiculous version of me (if I'm going to be ridiculous, clothes should not be the reason for it - there are much funner ways to be absurd). I want to be current, but not so "bang on trend" I look ludicrous or so keen to be fashionable that all identity is lost. An oversize snood may very well cover up more than just the lower part of your face.

I want my clothes to express and inform who I am - they shouldn't dictate or confine. I mean, isn't that the happy purpose of clothes?

As I puzzle on this, and the temperature climbs to a staggering 9 degrees Celsius here on this glorious Melbourne morning, I'm sure of one thing. Well, two things. My home address and phone number. And an oversize woollen snood is probably not going to be part of my future. Right?

8 Months!

2010-08-15T09:27:00.008+10:00

Hello and welcome from a chilly Melbourne to blog #63. Today is the official Month 8 mark of the challenge. I think I'm getting into the swing of it now....

I love coming to Melbourne. Apart from the very shallow reasons of I get to wear my winter boots and overcoats for longer than 10 minutes (which is about how long you can stand to wear them in Queensland before your feet and body turn into blocks of fire), but I get to experience something closer to the season we call Winter. It gets fairly cold here in Melbourne - about 10 degrees Celsius during the day. Throw in howling wind and driving rain and the weather really does become quite fascinating!

So am having a divine time here in Melbourne, negotiating the wind and wearing my woollen overcoat. I was out and about in Collingwood the other day and in one of the many used bookstores, I came across the book that illustrates this posting (left, or above, or where it is located here). How's that? Not only are there 50 shoes that changed the world (who knew?) but someone wrote about it!

Like I did at the Official Month 4 mark of the challenge (remember blog #31?), today seemed a good day to do a review of the last few months. We'll pick up from Month 5 (since the now-classic blog #31 took us up to the end of Month 4 - you can do a quick review of Months 1 through 4 by clicking here, then you'll be ready to take on the review of Months 5 - 8!).

In Month 5, I was in the lead up to my birthday and a one month trip to New Zealand. I blogged about mixing and matching -- a key to "shopping your wardrobe". I took you into my private packing world with Pack it Baby! and when we arrived in Auckland, I wrote about the City of Sales (or Sails, as they insist on spelling it). I had a moment of Near Misses and Misplaced Fear, and I got courageous with Going In - this was also when I first identified with the seagulls in Finding Nemo, a theme I have come back to a couple of times since then. I had my first television appearance on May 5 and blogged about that in blog #37. And I finished the month by waxing lyrical about What's In and Why, leaving us collectively pondering where our own sense of style comes into the equation. Surely, we're not all at the mercy of the fashionistas who determine the trends and merchandise them relentlessly. Right?

Month 6 and I had turned a psychological corner -- I was sure that clothing stores were not the enemy, and I'd had some experiences to back up this developing belief. I'd actually gone into some stores and discovered that I did have the willpower to appreciate what was on display without purchasing or leaving sans-purchase but with a feeling of regret. This felt like progress! I blogged about Napier, the world-wide capital of Art Deco Style. I talked about how I had to be me in Just Looking. I identified 3 kinds of Not Quite New Shopping. We arrived home from New Zealand and I invited you into my arrival home in the ground-breaking Unpack Me! post.

One of my favourite, like ever, posts was written (blog #43) on What Do Clothes Mean? toward the end of May, followed by the final post of the month where I mused about the world of fashion shows in It's Art. It was a prolific writing time for me, and I continued in June with a whimsical post about recycling - Recycled - Buy It Here!, then did a Quick Review of my favourite and most popular posts written so far.

The last post of Month 6 marked the half-way mark of the challenge, and I reflected on the challenge so far here. I wrote about what I'd noticed was how the emotional and psychological parts of the challenge were really the essence of it. Sure, the "not" part (not going shopping) was what was obvious. But the real juice lay just out of line of sight. Who needs Le Carre, Childs and Cornwell when you've got this stuff. Right?

Month 7 and we were sneaking up on Winter here in Australia. In Go Shoppa! I shared some of the studies and statistics that have been unearthed about women and shopping - shocking stuff. On May 10 I was back in New Zealand for a command TV appearance, this time on the Good Morning Show. I also had a boring shopping experience that somehow seemed worth writing about.

Winter proper had arrived -- not only from a seasonal perspective but an emotional one as well. I had some tough times in mid July and blogged about them in Emotions Go Shopping and The Princess Bride. I picked up the theme of a previous topic with Not Quite New Shopping - Clothing Exchanges, rounding out the 4th kind of shopping that doesn't involve buying new. A fun post in New Old Shoes had me musing on the exact rules of the challenge, concluding that gifted and swapped items were allowed. Reasonable. Right?

Month 8 started off with the insightful Exit Here - Via Your Visa. Stuck for ideas, I wrote the forgettable Same Old but New Somehow post which I wont even link to, it's that ordinary. Another favourite post came along in 5 Things I'd Tell You - a round-up of my accumulated wisdom garnered from being on the challenge, which may contain some surprising ideas. I had an emotional Breakthrough toward the end of July -- something I would not have thought possible 7.5 months ago. This which was good, because Today Tonight (the evening magazine TV show on Network Seven here in Australia) came to acquire some footage for a show they're doing on recovering shopaholics. As at the time of writing (yep, on this very day, here in Melbourne), the story is yet to go to air, but I'll keep you posted! I finished up July by giving a Working Definition of "Shop Your Wardrobe", identifying the building blocks of a working wardrobe. It was killer.

Into August we collectively travelled, and I gave some reasons why 12 months without shopping could fulfil your life in ways unimaginable, and why others who had attempted this (the good GAAD people) may have had such trouble with a challenge like this. I wrote about Ange's experience of Skinny Jeans and Poor Service, which boggles the brain. And I finished up Month 8 by devising a definition of Conscious Shopping. All in all, a pretty rich and random set of posts. Right?

Rules schmules? There are rules to writing, and blog writing has its own set of niche norms. Blogs are springing up everywhere, on every conceivable topic, written by citizen journalists all over the world who want to share! Have you noticed?

I try not to follow too many of those writing rules when I sit down to blog twice a week here. This blog is intentionally diary-style and a record of my own experiences, filtered through my particular personality and psychological twitches. When I write about things that may help you (the building blocks of a working wardrobe for instance), I'm reminding myself as much as sharing with you.

I know I'm probably offending the blogging gods somewhere somehow with this approach. I also hope I'm delighting you, dear reader. At least some of the time. I hope that by just being me, that I'm connecting with you. That's the leap of faith I take every time I write like this. Because if I can't be me, and the me I am isn't able to connect with you, then the only reasonable response is to fall to the floor in a foetal position. And that can't be right.

Plus, who's going to make the dinner and bring in the washing? Challenging to do that from the foetal position on the floor. So I continue to be me and live in hope that this is working for you as much as it is for me. Right?

Conscious Shopping

2010-08-10T09:55:00.006+10:00

Well it's a rather dreary looking Tuesday morning here in the Sunshine State. I'm off to Melbourne in a few short hours and have stopped by here to give you blog #62. Today I thought we'd chat a bit about Conscious Shopping.

What is it? Well, many things probably. Well, at least two. Their definition and mine ('their' being those other than me). I've heard some people refer to conscious shopping as being about buying 'green' -- clothes that are not industrially dyed or manufactured using slave or child labour, that kind of thing. These kinds of clothes would carry the warning: "no bamboo was harmed during the making of this garment". And I like that definition of conscious shopping. It's just not my definition.

My Definition. Remember blog #59 when I gave a Working Definition of Shop Your Wardrobe? (well, it's hard to forget, I know). Expanding on the pearls I laid before you in that post, shopping consciously would encompass the following:

You have a plan, a strategy, an overarching r'aison d'etre for going shopping. There is no randomness to the shopping trip where you wander listlessly from rack to rack, with no clear thought about what it is you're looking for. For some of you, this element of Shopping Consciously alone will change how you shop.

You have done some pre-playing in your wardrobe and know what you need. You've done a bit of a wardrobe chuck-out and have identified any legitimate gaps in what you have and what you need. This may have taken you a whole day or 10 minutes. However long it took, you didn't just leap into the car and point it in the direction of a shopping centre with no further thought. You got some "good intel" before going shopping. And you got it from your own wardrobe (and brain).

Once purchased, the items on your shopping list will fit your lifestyle and will also play nicely with at least 3 other items, if not the entire closet. This way, you will not be bringing home any 'orphans' that don't go with anything else (or require additional items to be purchased to make them work -- see last post on Ange's jeans shopping debacle)

During your shopping expedition, you keep a focused head about you. You know what you're there to buy, and you keep that Front And Centre. This is not to say that you don't enjoy all the lovely other things on display. You just don't want to be a sitting duck, vulnerable to every alluring table display and group of mannequins displaying gorgeous things that you don't need. Stop - admire - even try on. But keep focused on what you're there for.

If you do find something gorgeous that's not part of your strategy (ie: not on the list) and you are Seriously Considering buying it, that's ok. Just make sure it ticks ALL of these boxes: Does the colour suit me? Does the style flatter my body shape? Does the item fit my lifestyle? Will I be able to wear it with at least 3 other things already in my wardrobe? Will it be relatively easy to care for (ie: no hand washing or dry-cleaning every time you wear it)? Does it fit well or can it be easily altered? Does my bum look big in this? (well, every woman asks herself that last question as a matter of course, don't they? Even if they're trying on shoes)

Shop less, but more. Really! I'd suggest that you are better of going shopping 2 - 4 times a year, consciously, than once every week or so, randomly. This way, you shop based on your "intel" (do a wardrobe review and chuck-out - then build your list of Must Haves -- not the seasonal must haves, mind. No. These are your must haves) -- not based on what the fashion merchandisers are flaunting right at this moment.

So go shopping less often, but for longer. You'll need a longer shopping trip because you've got specific and numerous things to purchase. You devote more time to the expedition, but you come home with only what you need.

This way, shopping fits into its proper place. It isn't a hobby or a contact sport. And in the end, this approach will save you time. Woooo - saved time! Isn't that what half the women's magazines (and a quarter of the men's) are saying we are all desperately short of? Well, here's a way to scrape some of it back!

When you shop this way, you enjoy shopping, but it doesn't become your life (your life is too important to devote to shopping).

Switch to the ON position. Shopping consciously implies that your brain is switched to the ON position. I say that with the greatest affection, you know. I have often been shopping with my brain switched to the NEUTRAL position. That "there but not there" state of vagueness where you are actually hyper-suggestible and therefore likely to come home with a few more bags and a few more pages on your credit card bill.

Please don't go shopping in that state. The only people that that's good for are unscrupulous retailers who are only interested in volume sales - not developing loyal customers who go home thrilled with their purchases.

If you are too tired, too overwraught, too stresesed, too whatever -- don't go shopping. The temporary pick-me-up it provides wont last anyway, and it'll be accompanied by some "below the line" feelings of guilt and "oh no, now I have to go return this thing anyway".

Only go shopping when you are feeling alert and energetic. Pay attention to what's going on around you, and what's going on inside you. Yes, let's get all woo-woo for a moment here. If something doesn't feel right, it probably won't work for you - so pay attention as much attention to your instincts as you do to the sales staff. Maybe more.

You know when your brain is switched to the ON position, and when it's not. Only go shopping when it's ON.

Investigate other options. Instead of always hitting the mall or large shopping centre, you might want to consider new but not new options (which I talked about here and here. And remember consignment shopping - it's the best!). Including this type of shopping, and those types of stores, into your shopping expeditions will add some colour and variety and fun. You'll likely find some unique treasures, and not just the mass produced stuff on sale in the big department and chain stores.

It's worth it. You're worth it. If you've been a serious shopper, someone who shopped regularly, and randomly, then developing some new habits around how you shop will take a bit of time. Shopping consciously is where you want to be, though, so stick with it until you can shop this way easily.

Shopping consciously will save you money and time and it'll also save your sanity in the long run. And we all need a little more of those, don't we. Right?

Skinny Jeans and Poor Service

2010-08-06T13:45:00.003+10:00

Hello dear reader and welcome to a glorious winter Friday. Here we are at blog #61. This week, my friend Ange was telling me about a shopping experience she had. It boggled my brain so much, I asked her if I could tell you about it. "Sure", she said. So here it is.

Ange wanted a pair of jeans. Not just any pair of jeans, but jeans with particular style elements. Ange is a beautiful 29 year old with two gorgeous little boys and an adoring husband (with a broken foot, but that's another story). Ange knows a bit about her style - she likes black, she likes bold colours, she knows a lot about make-up. And she knows what looks good on her body and, possibly more importantly, what does not.

One sunny day last week, Ange went jeans shopping. She chose a national jeans store, thinking that they would not only stock a large range of jeans, but that their staff would be knowledgeable. About jeans.

Wrong. On both counts.

Here is what Ange was looking for:

jeans were to cover and slim her hip/thigh area. I'd guess that 4.7 women out of 5 are looking for this particular design feature, so it didn't seem unreasonable to imagine that would be a tick! no problem, madam, would you like that in dark, stone, or ripped?

jeans were to lengthen and slim the leg. Few of us actually resemble in any physical way the models we see sporting the jeans we end up buying. Those models are all 7ft tall (everyone knows that, right?). So this also seemed like a design feature that was not altogether unexpected

jeans were not to gape at the back. Few women would enter a jeans store and say "well, I don't care what colour or style they are. But they absolutely positively must gape at the back so that my underwear is visible from the cab of any passing 18-wheeler, ok?". Another check in the box of Reasonable Request

jeans were to be dark denim. As you can now get jeans in colours from Prussian blue to sand-blasted to 'destroyed' denim and silver jeans. Dark denim seemed a fairly easy-to-find quality in a jean

jeans were to have some shaping quality to them. This is one of the advances in fabric and garment construction that those of us with less than stick-like figures have benefited from. What you see on the outside may be a virtual magic trick made possible by the shaped panels inside the garment.

jeans were to be in stretch fabric. Since we've all been wearing Lycra-infused garments since Brooke Shields first exhorted us to not let anything come between us and our CKs, this didn't seem unreasonable to request either

Ok, I'm sure you've got the picture. Ange was fairly specific in what she wanted. But also not an unreasonable set of design requirements. I have 3 pair of jeans (out of a total of 14 pair) that fit those exact specifications. Two of them are from Target, I might mention.

The sales person "assisting" Ange brought out a pair of jeans that closely resemble those in the photo accompanying this article. No exaggeration. Promise.

Apart from the dark denim bit (requirement #4), they possessed none of the design features Ange asked for.

"They look great!". What happened next is even more astonishing. Ange is standing there, looking like she's been poured into these jeans, and the sales person exclaims "oh, they look great on you!". At this point, Ange began to wonder if this young woman didn't have some kind of visual impairment. There was no possible way that the words "great" and "you" could be applied to the vision of Ange in those jeans.

When Ange protested that she didn't feel good, or didn't feel she looked good, the response was "oh, well you could wear a longer top, and a little ankle boot" (yes, the jeans were wrong from both ends - with muffin top and cankles appearing as if from thin air. Doing wonders for Ange's self esteem, into the bargain).

Ange responded that she didn't want to have to adjust her entire wardrobe to be able to make the jeans "work" (although she felt that nothing short of an amputation was likely to make that happen in a hurry).

Less confidence in sales staff. Ange walked out of the store jeans-less. She told me that the entire experience left her less confident in sales staff in general. "Even if I do need help, when I walk into a store and someone asks if they can help, I say no. Because I don't trust their advice". How sad is that?

And the answer is... behind door number 3 of course! The answers are obvious. Here's a few I made up just now:

sales staff need to be knowledgeable. And not just about the product their store is selling, but about their customers. If you are selling clothing to real human beings, you need to know a bit about the human body shapes that exist. And what looks good on the various human body shapes. And that's not even getting into colour or personality dressing. And here's a bonus free tip: skinny hipster jeans do not look good on real curvy women of any height (and I'm not talking 'Hollywood curvy' there).

sales staff need to be focused on the customer, not on selling stock off the floor. This is sheer heresy to some retailers, I know. Ange said that when she was working in retail, they had the 7 Steps to a Sale, from "greet the customer" through to ringing up the sale. The focus was on selling the product, not on helping the customer. And YES, of course they should be the same thing. But how many times have you walked out of a store and wondered if they even saw you, let alone were focused on helping you? (If you can get staff under 21 off their hand-held electronic devices long enough to even notice that you've entered the store, you're doing well).

sales staff need to have the judgement and communication skills to provide honest input to customers. If you are selling clothing to real human beings, you need to be able to ascertain (in your best judgement) if the item is flattering to that person. Then you need to be able to express that viewpoint with diplomacy and courtesy. If everything "looks great on you!", then you know the sales person has no idea and their comments are on automatic loop.

sales staff need to be able to offer options to customers. If you are selling clothing to real human beings, you need to not only be able to provide an opinion on how flattering the current garment is on them, but offer them options if it's not. This usually requires a brain switched to the ON position.

sales staff need to do all this so that the customer walks out happy. And does not come back, unhappy and having complained to as many people as will listen, to return the item. A happy customer will not only tell lots of people about their experience, but they will become a loyal customer.

Now if you walked into a store and were assisted by a sales team member like that, wouldn't that be a treat? Wouldn't you be telling anyone who'd listen long enough all about it? Wouldn't you become a loyal customer? I sure would. Well, if I were still shopping, which I'm not right now. Naturally.

So, Ange is still looking for a pair of jeans. If only she were my size, she could have a pair of mine. Right?

12 Months Without - what?

2010-08-03T13:51:00.027+10:00

Hi there and welcome to blog #60. If you are new here, it's great to see you and I hope you'll stick around and have a look at what I've been up to. This blog is written diary-style, I write on whatever's on my mind when fingers hit the keyboard, and on a variety of topics that relate to being on this challenge.

So you're new and want to know shat I write about here? All kinds of stuff gets written here! Feel free to read all 60 posts. Some are more gripping than others, for sure. In case you don't want to read each and every one in chronological order, here's a high level sketch of some of the things I write about here:

Sometimes I write about the fashion world or the marketing/merchandisers who lure us into purchasing new items that we may, or may not, need or even want.

Sometimes I wrote about shoppers and shopping centres.

Sometimes I write about various challenges or successes or I'm having on (or ways I'm coping with) the challenge.

Sometimes I write about observations I've made about shopping from being out and about.

Sometimes I write about TV shows (fiction and documentary) or movies and their relationship to this challenge.

I've been fortunate enough to have some media attention and I write about that, too.

Sometimes I write about the building blocks to creating a working wardrobe, like colour and mixing and matching. I'll be writing more about the other building blocks, too, soon (like conscious shopping and style & shape)

Sometimes I write about ways to inject something new into your wardrobe, without buying new (or buying anything). Like here, here and here.

Sometimes I write about what I've learned or I'll stop and do a review, just so we can collectively catch our breath.

Doing it Yourself. Today I'm writing specifically to those of you who are seriously thinking about doing this challenge. As in, joining up with me, clicking that big orange button, and having their own Year Without Shopping.

Why do 50% fail? The Great American Apparel Diet is a no-shopping-for-one-year challenge that anyone could participate in (an American lady named Sally started it), and quite a lot of people signed up for it. The GAAD started on 1 September 2009 and (no matter when you started) it finishes at the end of this month (which is amazing timing, because that's about when our membership program will open its doors. But we're not talking about that just yet - that's coming up in a paragraph or two).

The New York Times recently ran an article about PLUs who are doing extreme things like not shopping for clothes for a year, or only existing on 6 items of clothing for a year. Seems to be a hot topic right now.

What the NY Times reported was that half of the GAAD people dropped out of that challenge. Including Sally's sister. The GAAD website doesn't mention anything about this, but I am wondering about the reasons why so many people could not see the challenge through.

Here's my best guesses:

the challenge is simply too hard -- habits were too entrenched, temptation is too irresistible, sales were too pervasive. Willpower is not just the name of an Australian racing car driver, although it may be just as elusive.

the challenge was too isolating -- despite there being a good few people who joined the challenge, maybe it felt too Robinson Crusoe to some folks. Not too many of us can remain stimulated and enthused when working in a vacuum. On something really hard.

the challenge didn't offer enough support. It may have felt that the challenge was not just all-on-your-ownsome, but doing it without a net as well. Hard to keep on keeping on when it feels like there's no-one there to catch you if you fall. Or even notice.

there weren't enough distractions or new ideas. Bribery and distraction work for toddlers in supermarkets, and they work for adults, too. You can't just take something away and not replace it with something. Well, not if you want it to work. You've got to fill up the now-empty space with something else. Preferably something good.

the focus was on "doing without". This feeds into the human fear of scarcity -- never having, or being, enough. Which is not a life-enriching or spirit-lifting aura to surround yourself with.

Now, who knows if these things affected any of those 50% of good GAAD people who didn't make it. Maybe halfway through the challenge, they all got jobs at Calvin Klein and got massive staff discounts. We may never know, and thank Jimmy Choo for a bit of mystery, I say.

So, does this mean that 12 month challenges are too hard to stick with? No, no, no, and no! They can work... (well, they do - 50% of the good GAAD people stuck with it, right? And let's not forget me - it's working for me, too). Here are the things that need to be in place to make it work.

1. support. You gotta know that there's a helping hand, a bit of tough love, and possibly a large polo mallet (gently and infrequently applied) that will be activated to help keep you going. And someone will notice if you fall of the wagon.

2. inspiration. You gotta know that there'll be new ideas, distraction and large amounts of cavity-inducing chocolate available to get you thinking and feeling differently about your wardrobe, your shopping habits, and yourself.

3. guidance. You gotta know that someone who's qualified, experienced and has a more than adequate grasp of the English language is going to offer you some juice on how to do things differently. And by that, I mean better.

The 12 month program we've got going has all that in spades. I told you a bit about the experts we're attracting to the program in the last blog. When you join the 12 month My Year Without Clothes Shopping program, I'll

make it as easy as it's possible to be

make it fun and fulfilling

make it inspiring and practical

be with you the entire time

remind you that if I can do it, you can, too

That's the deal. Check it out. Decide for yourself. Click the big orange button. We'll still be friends, no matter what you decide. Right?

Shop your Wardrobe: A Working Definition

2010-07-30T11:42:00.004+10:00

A hearty Friday hello to you. Our weather has been having rather wild mood swings of late. Rainy and overcast in the mornings, brilliant sunshine by late morning, cloudy and menacing by dusk. I thought that kind of cantankerous climate only happened in Melbourne. Or Toronto.

So, here we all are at blog #59. A lot has happened this last week.

We've been taped by Australia's Channel 7. Their evening magazine show, Today Tonight is doing a story on recovering shopaholics, and I'm one of the featured people on it. The show is probably going to air early next week. Like heavy towels on a cloudy day, it takes time for a story like this to air properly. I'm looking forward to airing. (actually, while we're talking about this... if you watch the show, you'll see the shots of my wardrobe. Which is not only one of my favourite rooms in the house, but is also a converted bedroom and very deliberately designed and laid out. Just for a bit of context, I have attached a photo that shows a portion of Mariah Carey's wardrobe. All we see are some of her shoes - not even all of them. And that's just her shoes. Heaven knows how big the entire thing is. I'm thinking football field sized).

We have moved full steam ahead on getting our 12 month My Year Without Clothes Shopping program knocked into shape. Check out the updated website here. I'll wait while you check it out..... back? Good. What did you think? We're pretty pleased with the site and have received some positive feedback to it. Which is better than a poke in the eye with a wet fish, isnt' it?
We've got some great guest writers/contributors lined up to be part of the 12 month program. Avis Cardella (author of Spent: memoir of a shopaholic) is going to be part of Months 4 and 9. Jennifer Selby Long (author of Wealthy Types) is going to contribute to Month 8. Helen Robinett of Image Quest (image advisor extraordinaire) is going to contribute to Months 2, 5 and 11.... It's all go, I tell ya. There'll be so many fabulous people contributing to this program, our heads will collectively spin.

Ok, before I get too business-y here, let me get onto what else I want to talk to you about today. You'll probably have noticed the words the Shop Your Wardrobe website. And you're probably wondering: what does that mean? Good question, and I'm glad you asked!

And if you're really asking: I wonder if it's too early for lunch? Or, is Chelsea Clinton really going to serve gluten-free cake at her wedding? Then I'm sorry but you've come to the wrong website for answers to those burning questions. So let me go ahead and answer my own question, and try to stay with me, please!

Ok, so here's the scoop. There's two bits to Shop Your Wardrobe. Well, two bits I could think of anyway. Here they are:

1. The first bit is about attitude. Psyche. Thoughts patterns. What goes on in the upstairs department. You know how you can look at the stuff in your wardrobe and be silently saying "yeah, this is all ok... but what I really want is....[insert name of desired object here]!". Desired object may be the latest Must Have item you've read about or seen tantalisingly displayed in a store window. At the moment, I've noticed a lot of military-inspired stuff around. Which is not for me. You put military-style with animal-print and I'll look like I'm about to stage a coup in some third-world country. Not the look I'm going for.

So, back to this attitude thing. Maybe you're looking at your winter jackets and wishing for a military-inspired jacket instead of what you've got now. Whatever it is you're wishing for, what that's doing is creating or reinforcing a feeling of want. You feel something is lacking. Now, maybe your wardrobe has the goods, maybe it doesn't. That's not the point here (it's the next point -- let's keep our points in order, shall we?)

If you want to Shop Your Wardrobe, you gotta have an attitude of what I've got is enough. Your 'tude should be one of enjoying and using what you've got to the full. Easy enough to say, harder to do. But it can be done.

And of course, it's easier if point #1 and point #2 are in synch. Let's get into point #2 now, shall we?

2. The second bit of Shopping your Wardrobe is to create a working wardrobe. Oh, so what the Gucci is a working wardrobe?, I hear you ask. Sheesh, you're asking all the great questions today.

A working wardrobe is one where every single item in it:--

works for you. Every thing makes you look good and feel even better

pays its rent. You wear everything in your wardrobe. None of that "oh the last time I wore this was when I went to see The Godfather when it first came out at the drive-in". No. It all gets worn. Regularly. Seasonally. Frequently.

plays well with other items. Every item coordinates with at least 3 other items in your wardrobe. And 3 is just the minimum. There's no maximum.

has been purchased consciously. None of that random whirling through a store, picking up things thither and tither, with no overarching plan in your head of what you're there to buy, why you're buying it, and how it's going to fit into your current wardrobe. Working wardrobes don't get created that way. The people who stand at their wardrobe, staring into it with a slightly white-eyed look, lamenting "look at all this stuff! Yet I've nothing to wear" have usually shopped in that random fashion. There's no consciousness to that kind of shopping.

Working wardrobes usually take a bit of time to develop. Mine has taken 10 years to get to the point where it is now. 10 years ago is when I started getting conscious about pulling my wardrobe together.

10 years ago is when I learned about and applied the building blocks of a working wardrobe (and this is also a useful guideline for me in upcoming blog pieces I should cover, right?).....

colour. What colours support me and make me look my best? Ok, you might or might not buy into that whole colour thing. That's ok. But I reckon there's something to it, and it sure makes shopping easier

style and shape. I'm not a fan of Trinny and Susannah's body shapes that are modelled on inanimate man made items (who wants to be a 'brick'? or a 'bell'? yegods). But there is something to understanding the different shapes that we humans tend to come in, and knowing yours in particular. Then dressing accordingly. It's the way nature intended it. I mean, there's a reason why hippos, rhinos and elephants come in standard grey, isn't there?

personality dressing. You don't have to be Carl Jung to know that people come in different personality packages. This is also the way nature intended. Take birds for instance.... peacocks are different to eagles, and both are different to owls, and they're all different to doves. Right? (And let's not even get started on the hairy woodpecker). However you slice and dice it up, we all have different personalities, and knowing yours can help you determine a style of dressing that supports or expresses or even informs who you are. Assuming you have your eyes open and your brain turned to the on position, you'll likely feel quite different wearing a navy blue structured suit than you will wearing a pair of board shorts and thongs.

lifestyle. When I worked for an international consulting firm, what I needed in my working wardrobe is really different to what I need in it now. Putting that knowledge into practice to keep my wardrobe truly working for me is part of Shopping My Wardrobe. Out with the suits! In with the animal print jackets! I didn't have a single animal print jacket 10 years ago (and now I have 12.... ok, don't say anything! That's why I'm on this challenge, right?)

mixing'n'matching. There's a skill to pulling a whole bunch of outfits together from only a few items of clothing. You truly have a working wardrobe when your options expand exponentially every time you bring home something new. Which leads me to my next, and final point....

shopping consciously. You gotta have a plan, or at least some broad ideas of what you're going out there to buy. Without it, you're a walking duck, vulnerable to the sassiest table displays and most alluring window displays. You're like Isla Fisher walking along the street with the store mannequins beckoning to her (loved that part of the movie!). For me, having a plan meant that I could shop purposefully. I knew I'd never bring home an 'orphan' that wouldn't play nicely with any other item in my wardrobe. I discovered my love of consignment shopping, which meant I could shop for quality items without breaking the bank. And who doesn't want an unbroken bank, right?

Ten years ago is when I stopped shopping randomly. Ten years ago is when my working wardrobe really started to take shape. I was in training before then... I had some good ideas, but I didn't really know what the building blocks were, and I sure didn't know how to pull it together. Now I know. And I can honestly say that I shop my wardrobe. Neat, huh? (that, or slightly annoying. I know).

And I can help you do it, too. True blue. (you can read more about why I'm qualified in that particular department about halfway down this page).

So that's the skinny on what I've been up to and what shop your wardrobe means. You're up to date. Right?

Breakthrough - Relief!

2010-07-27T10:09:00.009+10:00

Greetings and welcome to blog #58. I had a breakthrough recently. Don't you just love it when people have breakthroughs? I do. A breakthrough implies that someone has come through adversity. That they've been in the mire, prone, prostrate, miserable, stuck, eating worms. It's been HORRIBLE for them. And now - ahhh - the sun has come out, they've gotten to their feet, wiped the dust off their clothes and the mud out their eye.

Breakthroughs imply battling. Some form of battling has taken place. We weren't sure who would win -- good or evil. There were times we were sure that the good guy wouldn't win - he was down on his luck, down in the dumps, down on the dollar. Aussies love a good battler story. I don't think that we are culturally unique in that regard, but we do like to think that the battler is something we invented, don't we?

Anyway, I've been battling. As you know, if you've been reading thiseehere blog. Which of course I know you are, dear reader. Remember blog #51? (it's sure to become a classic). All bent out of shape with nowhere to go and nothing to buy.

Well, on the weekend, I had a breakthrough! (this is worse than an episode of LOST, isn't it? All this bloody build-up! Ok, I'm getting to it, promise. Next sentence. Well, paragraph at least.)

I was in Peter Alexander, my favourite pyjama store (doesn't everyone have a favourite jammie store? Ha! Can you imagine women of our mother's and grandmother's era, having a favourite PJ store? Unheard of! Pajama's aren't fashion items! They're practical things! How things have changed..). I happened to have my camera with me and snuck the above photograph of their current winter range (yep, still "winter" here in Queensland).

Animal print! And what do you notice? Lotsa animal print, right? Waaaay back, in blog #9, I talked about my love of all things animal print. Whenever I see it, I'm sure some synaptic nerve goes bananas in my brain. So what they had in this store was:

zebra print brushed cotton pj sets + just long bottoms

giraffe print brushed cotton pj sets + just long bottoms. Giraffe is an unusual print - you don't see it so much

cheetah print polished cotton (so a shinier look & feel fabric) in pj sets + just bottoms

Lovely stuff. Right up my alley. I looked longingly at items #2 and #3. I picked out my size (M) and held it up. I ran my hands over the fabrics. I had a few moments of "oooh, lovely, I wish...." (those damn seagulls from Finding Nemo and their "mine! mine!" chants haven't quite gone away, but they are receding. Which is a relief - I'd hate to have a Pixar character take up permanent residence in my head. I blogged about them at the Halfway Point most recently).

And then.... something magical happened. I remembered the challenge (yes, brief amnesia is one of the side effects of going into shops, which is why staying out of them is such a good idea) and my commitment to not going clothes shopping for one year. I want to feel proud of myself at the end of this challenge - that I achieved what I set out to do.

I remembered that there are always lovely things to be purchased - they wont go away on December 16 2010 (when the challenge finishes for me). I told myself that if I desperately needed a new pair of PJs next year, I'd find something lovely then.

Wait for it....And I hung up the item in my hand. And here's what was so amazing. I felt relief. Yes, relief. You read that right, clothes fans. For the first time ever on this challenge, I had an item in my hand that I really liked, that was at a price I was happy to pay, that would be worn (pay its rent in my wardrobe), that had practical value.... and when I let it go, I felt something other than a twinge of regret, a shiver of misgiving, an agitation that I might be "missing out".

I felt relief that I didn't have to buy this item. The challenge is the fence that's keeping me in, sure, and that wont last forever (well, it finishes on December 16 2010). But I hope that I can simulate the same emotional braking mechanism that kicked in on Sunday.

Ahem (cough), excuse me.....Now, if you're reading this and thinking to yourself: ok, this bird is saying she feels some kind of regret that she didn't buy pyjama bottoms - am I reading this right? I getcha. I'm writing the damn thing and thinking that. But I'm also thinking: thank god I'm getting a handle on this now. That I'm waking up, tuning in, and letting the entire internet-reading world to witness my struggle.

This is what's real for me right now, warts and all (well, probably more than just warts - I could keep a dermatologist busy for a month with all my 'blemishes'). I just hope you won't cross the street to avoid me if you see me out in public one day.

So, there it is. My breakthrough in 9 easy-to-read-paragraphs. It's not exactly the Kokoda Track, but it's real for me. I feel lighter somehow, and stronger too. And it only took until nearly Month 8 for it to happen.

See - this stuff doesn't happen overnight, I knew it! Who knows what the remaining 4 months of the challenge will bring? More television appearances, perhaps. And more insights and breakthroughs, too. Although possibly not in that particular order.

But for now, I feel like I'm in a good place. It can't all be stones. Right?

5 Things I'd tell you

2010-07-23T14:15:00.009+10:00

G'day and welcome to blog #57. Being 7 months into the challenge, it's probably a good time for me to deliver some pearls. Not the freshwater kind, mind, but the wisdom kind. Surely I've learned something that can be distilled in 5 neatly organised points, right?

So, let's imagine we were sitting together over a glass or three of Shiraz (which I had a few too many of last night and am feeling slightly icky today as a result), and you were to ask, as people do:

"So, what's your advice for other shopaholics?"

I mean, that question is on everybody's lips, isn't it?

Let's pretend it is. So you've asked. The question is hanging in the air. I might pause for dramatic effect, take a ladylike sip of my full bodied red (that's the wine I'm talking about now, people) and say something like this.

1. It's ok to love clothes. Clothes are there to be enjoyed, loved, taken on holiday. Recognising you are a recovering shopaholic should not mean that your enjoyment, heck let's just say it - love, of clothes need change. You can still enjoy them. Clothes are fun, they have meaning, they can be a form of personal expression. You just don't need to keep buying them at such a rapid and unrelenting pace. Right?

2. You wanna work out why you buy. With few exceptions, the purchase of almost any item you can think of is more than just about the thing or the money. There's usually some emotions involved, some psychology at play. Exploring what shopping means for you, what need it is plying, is important. Why? Because it'll help unhook you from it, that's why. If you shop when you feel low as a way to perk you up, and you realise this, you've now got better choices. So next time you feel low, you can check in first and make a better choice than to go shopping as a reflex action. Right?

3. Think what else you can do - with your time, money and energy. Being a world class shopper takes a lot of time. Imagine what else you could be doing if you spent less time spending and more time living. Being a world class shopper takes a lot of money. Imagine what you could do if you invested or saved that money, or spent it in a way that enriched your experience of life. Being a world class shopper takes a lot of energy. Imagine what other ways you could direct your precious energy if you weren't spending it spending (see blog #15 where I turned my energy into jewellery design for a day. So not only did I use my creative energy, I used it in an area that I love - adornment of the body!). Right?

4. Resistance may be futile but avoidance works. I talked about this before in blog #25 and to quickly recap: avoiding temptation by not going anywhere near shops is a strategy that works, so why not use it? Sure, it's not a very, well, advanced strategy - it's more sledgehammer than fine scalpel - but it's effective. You don't have to slay your shopaholic dragon in one single day, and you may still feel the pull of the shops when you first start exploring why it is you shop so much. Set yourself up to succeed during the tough early days -- stay out of the shops. Why surround yourself with unnecessary temptation. Right?

5. Remember that the fashion industry's job is to sell you stuff. The fashion industry is one of the most profitable in the world. And why? Because they have worked out how to sell us stuff - more stuff than we need. They use terms like Must Haves (which I blogged about in April). They create in us a bottomless pit of desire for new things to add to our wardrobes. They inform us in authoritative tones about what's in and why. When we are vulnerable to these messages, they can literally be irresistible. And here's what I reckon about is the real purpose of those fashion shows. Remember that the fashion industry's job is to sell you stuff - just keeping this in mind can make it easier to work out what you want, rather than what it is they want to sell you. Right?

And if you are a shopaholic and want to have your own Year Without Clothes Shopping, let me know if you want to be inspired and supported as you do it. I may just have something for you....

So there you have it, clothes fans. My Friday afternoon wisdom for recovering shopaholics. Ask me next week, and I may tell you something different. But for now, there endeth the lesson. Wasn't too painful. Right?

Same old but new somehow

2010-07-21T16:27:00.004+10:00

hi there and welcome to blog #56. You know, one of the things that I have so enjoyed about the challenge is a feeling of rediscovery about my existing clothes. Knowing that there are no new friends to be joining the team of wardrobe dwellers this 12 months, has somehow translated into me feeling more appreciation for the gear I currently have. This has manifested it self in several outstanding ways. I feel the need for bullets coming on. Ready?

No Saving For Good. You know that feeling of "saving this for good"? Like you can't wear something because it's only for special occasions. Well, apart from the two evening gowns (well, they're more dresses than gowns) that I have, I have let that feeling go. I wear 'good' stuff on everyday days. This doesn't mean I'm wearing my Ashley Fogel suit to work in the home office where no-one will see me except Mango the zen princess ragdoll cat. But it does mean that I'm wearing my silk shirts for casual lunches; I'm wearing my animal print All Stars instead of my Uggs in the office; and I'm wearing my jackets on almost every occasion I can get.

More Combos. I'm finding myself being more experimental with the variations I am pulling together. I'm not a set dresser (I talked about this in the Mix'n'Match post) but I realised that I was putting the same combinations together time after time. I feel like I have so many more clothes now because I'm combining different things. Things that have never been paired together before. So, peas and carrots have become peas and chocolate chip ice cream. Yum!

Loving it. I'm enjoying my clothes so much more. Maybe it's because I know they aren't about to be bumped aside to make room for something new. I'm getting fuller use out of the plentiful supplies I have. You know, some winters I wouldn't wear some of the jackets I own. This is partly because we don't really have a winter. We call it winter because it falls in between autumn (which we kinda get here) and summer (which we definitely get here, often for longer than we wished we got it for). This winter, I've worn over half my jackets (I have so many that wearing all of them may be a feat). And this Wearing More thing is extending to more than my jackets. I feel like I am using what I've got more in all departments. And that feels good.

So, that's the Wednesday roundup of my feeling good about the challenge. Some days are diamonds and some are stones (thank you, John Denver)... and fortunately there've been some diamond days amongst it all. And for that, I'm grateful. Right?

Exit here - via your Visa.

2010-07-18T15:01:00.004+10:00

Crikey - get a look at that!

G'day and welcome to blog #55. Yesterday we went to Australia Zoo with 9 year old nephew, Thomas, who's really into the natural world and animals in particular, and reptiles in particular-particular. Want to know about the different types of feet that various types of geckos have? Just ask Tommy (bonus info: some geckos have suckers and others don't). Want to know about the habitat of cane toads? Just ask Tommy. He is a miniature David Attenborough, minus the Oxbridge accent.

The day before, we went to Underwater World with him. I've never discussed stingrays for so long in my life, and possibly never will again. (more bonus tips: depending on the type of ray, their barb appears at different intervals down their tail. Unless they are a shovel-nose ray, in which case, there is no barb. they are barb-less. but hey! they get a shovel for a nose, so it's not all bad!!). ANYWAY. What was fascinating about these visits was how our departure from said harbingers of the natural world was arranged.

Via the shop. Both of these tourist attractions have their exit via the shop. After you've finished absorbing yourself in all things underwater, you get to do some retail therapy! After you've finished your dip into the sumptuous surroundings of the Zoo, you can buy a Bindi t-shirt or tiger towel.

And these aren't the only tourist attractions that are arranged thus. We visited the 6th Floor Museum in Dealey Plaza in Dallas in August, and it was the same thing. After you've finished learning about conspiracy theories and magic bullets, go buy something! Now, doesn't that feel natural? - learn something new and fascinating, then take out your wallet and buy! Yikes!

No choice. And you can't decide to enter the store, or not. It's the only way out. I imagine that this exit arrangement is de rigueur if you own a tourist attraction. It's just the way things are done. And way back when this idea first got going, somewhere around the time of the gladiators, I'm sure that some young gun consultant with a PhD in retail consumer behaviour came up with this idea. It was probably considered brilliant and ground breaking at the time.

Manipulate me? But it just feels manipulative to me. Cheap somehow. Dare I say?... tacky. Sure, I may have had a good time at your tourist attraction, but do I really want to be manhandled into a retail environment after I've decided it's time to vamoos? This kind of exit strategy is the equivalent of "would you like fries with that?" (which apparently earned Maccas millions of revenue each year), or those 372-page email sales letters done in Courier typeface, that are full of yellow highlighted words (and have more than their fair share of the word "hurry" in them). It's so obvious it's audacious. Brash, brassy, brazen. And they are just the "b" words; don't get me started with the rest of the alphabet.

Ok, so you've gotten the idea that I don't appreciate being shepherded through a store as I make my departure. Does this mean I'm anti retail opportunities being presented in tourist attractions? Nosiree, not at all. I just like to have the choice as to whether I'll enter them or not.

And just for the record, yes, we went home sans any products bearing the name 'Bindi', sans plush animals in the shape of hand puppets, and sans neoprene stubby holders bearing the image of the dearly departed Steve Irwin. We did, however, take home a squeaky plastic squid ..... which somehow managed to not get thrown out of the window of our moving vehicle, which was to be its fate if the overuse it was getting on the drive home were to continue past the level of normal human endurance.

Phew! After more discussions about the length of Australia's most deadly snake (more bonus info: this is the Fierce Snake and it can grow over 2m long) than I care to mention, it felt like a lucky escape to exit the store purchase-less. There's only so much info a girl can take in on any given Saturday. Right?

New Old Shoes

2010-07-13T10:33:00.005+10:00

Greetings and welcome to a beautiful mid Winter day here on the Sunshine Coast. It is a balmy 18 degrees Celsius, the sun is shining and wait - is that a bird I hear singing? This must be paradise.

We're up to blog #54. On Sunday I received a new pair of shoes. WAIT! Before you go calling the Challenge police (well, that'd be me), hear me out. I haven't broken the challenge rules. Firstly, the shoes are not new new. They're vintage. See? That's them in the photo to the left - you can tell they're not new new, right?

Second, and most importantly, they were a gift. From the Diva - remember her from blog #14? We'd been invited to their beautiful canal-side home and after many glasses of champagne, the Diva mentioned this sensational pair of shoes that she had. The details are champagne- (excuse me - white carbonated wine)-induced sketchy, but they may have been gifted to her, also. However they came to be residing in the Diva's wardrobe, they were too large for her feet.

Her loss was my potential gain, my foot being a half size larger than hers. (how do women know these facts about one another? Can you imagine a bunch of blokes knowing that their mate has a foot size half a size larger? They barely know one another's names sometimes, let alone vital details like foot size, belt measurements and the names of wives and children).

As I say, many glasses of the good bubbly stuff were being consumed at this stage of proceedings. I put the aforementioned and above-pictured shoes on my feet, and it was like Cinderella and the glass slipper. They fit like a glove. And for shoes with a heel, they were comfortable (and yes, I have since put them on and they're still comfortable, even though I'm now completely sober).

At first the Diva was reluctant to give them to me straight away. She said that she and Terry, her divine husband, had already decided that they'd end up in my wardrobe. But she wanted to attempt to wear them at least once before she gave them to me. I can understand her thinking here, although possibly millions wouldn't. I guess the male equivalent is a guy who's giving his chainsaw away and wants to chop down one more tree before he gives it to his buddy. Or something.

Anyway, I finally took them off my feet -- this is after about 40 minutes of admiring them on my feet, modelling them for the other lunch guests and sprinkling the conversation with words like "oh, you're going to New Zealand next week? So, you wont be needing these shoes then, will you?". It was funny at the time. Once the shoes were off my feet, the Diva proceeded to put them on as she ushered us all to the door. Terry was berating her with words such as "just give them to Jilly! She'll end up with them anyway!". I wisely kept silent during this transaction, Terry having been a senior sergeant detective with the Sydney Police, he can be intimidating when he wants to, and he's not nicknamed the Bear for nothing.

Finally, with the front door in sight, Diva removes said footwear and stuffs them in the top of my handbag. And "stuff" is indeed the right verb, I tell you... I could tell she was experiencing mixed feelings. I've been waiting for the phone to ring and the Diva to say something like "you know those gorgeous vintage shoes I gave you on Sunday? Well....." But so far, nothing. Maybe this means I'll get to keep them after all.

And I've been thinking about the question I posed in the last blog about clothes swaps. Namely: is clothes swapping a breach of the challenges spirit, if not a breach of the rules? And I reckon the answer might be NO. Especially if it is being done only intermittently and not every week or somesuch. Now, I know what you're thinking -- I'm only saying that because I was given these shoes on Sunday. No, no. Ok, maybe just a little bit. But mostly I'm saying that because I believe it. The occasional clothes swap (or receipt of 'new' items given by friends and family) is an acceptable component of the challenge. That sounds reasonable. Right?

More Not Quite New - Clothes Exchanges

2010-07-10T11:24:00.009+10:00

howdie all and welcome to blog #53. Most of you know that I started writing this blog in December 2009 as a way of chronicling my journey and expressing the thoughts and feelings that I experienced as I undertook to have my year without clothes shopping.

Sometimes I talk about the emotional side of that ride - like the last two blog postings (and very cleverly weaving in The Princess Bride, too - not bad huh?). Other times I focus on more practical stuff, like mix'n'matching, or colour. And then other times I just wax lyrical about what's on my mind, like what do clothes mean? and the fashion industry.

Today I'd like to pick up something we talked about in blog #41. We talked then about not-quite-new shopping and the three ways you can shop for clothes without paying full price:

1. op shopping

2. vintage

3. consignment

Almost as soon as I'd finished that posting, I knew there was at least one other category that I'd left out -- clothing exchanges. This is where you get to inject something new and fabulous into your own wardrobe, and you get to clear something unwanted and fabulous (for someone else) out of your wardrobe. And no money changes hands!

There are a number of organised clothing exchanges around, and I'll get to them in a sec. Worth noting that you can exchange clothes without any help of course. But it has a 7.6 technical difficulty because the people you are exchanging clothing with:

need to be the same size as you. Not nearly the same size or could be the same size if some form of surgical procedure were performed. No. The same size you are now. Including your foot size. Having swapped shoes that were nearly my size, I can talk from experience. I had greater sympathy for the foot bound Chinese women after walking in those shoes from the house to the car.

need to have a similar style to you. If you are boho-chic, and they are corporate traditional, it could be a challenge to find items that you'll love and will represent something of who you are in each other's gear.

need to have similar colouring to you. Ok, some of you may not adopt the whole colour system, that's fine. But you at least have watched those "worst Oscars dresses" fashion autopsies where Nicole Kidman is wearing dark cobalt blue and she looks like she needs a blood transfusion, and Halle Berry is wearing nude apricot and looks like she hasn't slept for weeks with dark circles under her eyes. So, you'll appreciate that colour makes some difference. If you are Goldilocks and she's Sleeping Beauty, it could be hard to find something that actually looks good on you in each other's wardrobe

need to have a similar attitude and agreement on what "price" your items are worth. So you want to swap a bunch of Kooki singlets and she has a Dolce & Gabanna jacket and that seems fair to you but grossly unbalanced to her. You need to get your guidelines straight on what's worth what, keeping in mind not only the style of item, whether its "branded" or not, but its condition and style.

If all this seems far to freakin' hard, then you might want to consider a clothing exchange that's already in operation. You know, people who do this either as a full time hobby or a full time job and have learned the ropes. Here are a few I know about or have spent 80 seconds on Google researching:

Sizexchange.co.nz -- a unique site that focuses on women who are in the process of losing weight. Great idea!

Clothing Exchange (dotcomdotau) who run exchanges in Australia's largest cities, and Adelaide.

Swap! Not Shop! Which is based in the USA and runs a big swap event twice a year and also has some helpful blog posts like How to Swap (no wives required)

There's bound to be more people out there organising swaps. If you know of any, please be in touch and let me know, and I'll post again about this.

One last thing on this before I finish up this post, dear reader. Do I reckon this is a breach of the Challenges rules, to not go clothes shopping? You know, I'm not sure. It doesn't cost anything, so that's a vote in the "it's ok" basket. But then it does bring something new into your wardrobe, and one of the things I've found so valuable these last nearly 7 months is truly "shopping my wardrobe" and not having any new items. Being more creative with combining what I have, rather than itching for something new. So, I'm undecided. Either way, clothes swaps are eco-friendly and an outstanding way to bring something new into your wardrobe without buying new. Right?

The Princess Bride

2010-07-07T13:07:00.005+10:00

Hello and welcome to post #52. I haven't posted on a Wednesday in a while, so this week seemed a good time to do it.

So, I'm going to go a little metaphorical with this post. Hope that's ok with you. It's because I have to, you see. Because something is happening for me. Within me. I have this very clear sensation that something is going on, some shift, is happening. I'm feeling all kinds of intense things, and am generally feeling a little uncomfortable. Like when you have cut yourself and it's scabbed up; you know that the wound is healing, but it scratches like mad, you know that feeling? Well, it's kind of like that.

And so.... what does this have to do with the shopping challenge? Well, something. I'm sure it has something to do with it. I'm still working out how the lines are drawn directly from the challenge to this feeling, but I know it's connected.

Let me give this a try: shopping has been a method that I've used to both express and channel feelings. So, now that I no longer have this method at my disposal, what do I do with those feelings when they are in need of expressing or channeling? Where do they go instead? Last week, I talked a little about the dark side of this. Well, it's been more of that same thing, except it's not quite so dark now. I'm moving along, emotionally speaking.

Wuv, twue wuv. Let's talk about Wesley and Buttercup for a minute. We're talking The Princess Bride now, but you knew that already, right? I mean, doesn't everyone use The Princess Bride as a guide on how to live one's life? Sure they do.

So, you know how Wes and Bcup had experienced a spine-tingling, nerve-jarring, no-thanks-but-ok-if-I-have-to journey that took them up hill, down dale, through the Fire Swamp, the Thieves Forest, into despair, being tortured and betrayed, spat upon by warty old crones, jumping into eel-infested waters, battling revenge-focused Spaniard fencers? Well, the journey I'm on now is a bit like that.

The Princess Bride is a modern metaphor of the sort that Pilgrims Progress is (which scared the living poop out of me as a child, I still get a nervous tick in my left eye when I think about it). It describes how with every challenge, there are many layers.

You think you know what danger you're facing, but it turns out to be something more than what it appears. The challenge is more sinister, requires more courage, or involves a 7ft giant with hands the size of a bunch of sausages. That you didn't see coming.

You think you know what you need to face it, to conquer it, to walk away with a swagger in your step, chest out and chin held high. But you don't know what it's going to take. And the kicker is: it always takes more than you'd be willing to bet (before you started) you wanted to give. But by the time you're there, in that place, you have to keep going. That's how these challenging journeys extract their price - you are choiceless by the time you realise how deep you're going to have to dig. It's either hands on the shovel, or bye byes.

Ok, someone hand me a head mic and a soapbox, I'm on a roll with this now. We could wax on for hours about how instructional The Princess Bride is, right? It's so freakin' apt. And, I'm going to admit it, it's really helped me to see that even though this 12 months seems to be about saving money, not purchasing, staying out of the shops, it's not really about those things.

Sure, those things are happening, but that's not the real challenge. The real challenge is happening far beneath the surface. My plates are shifting (there's that seismic analogy again). My molecules are moving, my neural networks are changing shape. And, just like having a ROUS (Rodents of Unusual Size) take a chunk out of your shoulder, that's gotta hurt a bit. Right?

Emotions go shopping

2010-07-02T12:34:00.003+10:00

Howdie and here we are at blog #51. You know, dear reader, I've been having something of a tough week. Emotionally speaking now. Fed up with this, frustrated with that, fumbling around and fuming about something else. All those Ffffeelings, huh? Yes. I'm a believer in feelings. They exist. They affect us. Some of us more than others, I suspect. Because there are those people who seem to skate through life without nary the hiccup of experiencing a painful or pointy emotional state. They're like Teflon, and feelings are like oil - they slide right off. But not me. No. My feelings are generally my friends. But some days they are a kryptonite to my superman. This was one of those weeks.

Feelings Convention. So yesterday being Thursday seemed like a good day for my feelings to all converge. They had a Bad Feelings Convention. Right here in my body. Did they ask me? Nosiree, they did not! They just all congregated and then jumped up and down and made a big racket until I had to get in the car and screech out of the driveway. Which I did. Fortunately no small children, dogs or metal trikes were behind me because I suspect we would have had a wee accident if they had been.

Just looking. I took myself off to one of my favourite places to meander (read: shop, way back when I was in shopping mode), Noosa Junction. It has a collection of stores I love to look in, including a great fabric store (Oh Sew), a bead store (Shi Sha), a shoe store (Shoex), a homewares store (Casa Noosa) and a few other places I can never remember the names of. I wandered here, poked my head in there, shilly-shallied in a few other places. It was actually a very nice time, despite the motivation that had gotten me there.

I don't really want to...No, really. But here's what's fascinating. I was looking in a few stores, and discovering stuff that I found quite attractive. And I wasn't really wanting to buy it. I was happy just looking at it, and appreciating it. Sure, I had a couple of well, not so much "close calls" but moments that in a previous life, might have had me reaching for my wallet (oh, those turquoise All Stars on sale - down from $89.99 to $59.99 - one size left - mine! And that orange wrap dress thingo -- also on sale. Silk animal print fabric - gorgeous!). It wasn't a wrench to not buy them. For probably the first time since I've been on this challenge, I actually felt good, walking away from these items.

Good huh? This felt like real emotional progress. That even in my charged emotional state, when shopping would have been a salve, a balm, a distraction - used to 'help' get me through an emotionally tough time, I could stay on the challenge. And not just "not fall off the wagon", but actually feel I had some feelings of mastery about not buying. It wasn't a challenge in the "oh this is going to h-u-r-t" sense. But a sense of accomplishment. Dare I say it, a sense of deep caring for myself. That there was - is - a bigger thing in play here, and sticking on the challenge during that difficult time, was going to grow me somehow. Gosh, I've gone all California, haven't I? Someone, hand me a plate of mashed alfalfa sprouts and start singing Kumbaya, will you? So, feeling pretty good, in the midst of feeling pretty bad. Guess that makes me about even. Right?

Boring shopping

2010-06-29T18:30:00.005+10:00

Today we're up to post #50. Seems like an auspicious number of posts, doesn't it? I've been posting on average twice a week for six months, which is a fair whack of words to churn out on a regular basis. Some of them are even worth reading.

You know, when I'm working a regular week from the home office, its easy to stay away from the shops. We don't live near a shopping area, so I'm not in mortal danger of falling off the wagon just by nipping down the street for a latte (not that I drink lattes, since I gave up coffee 4 years ago). If I want to place myself in a shopping situation, it's usually fairly deliberate. One of the benefits of living in suburbia (there are too many other benefits to count, right?)

Jolt me into it. So today we had the opportunity to go shopping. One of our heaters went kaput, and at almost the exact same moment, so did the stereo in the living room. These electrical appliances, you'd think they were in cahoots with one another, the way they give up the ghost at the same time. At Christmastime, it was the iron and the toaster. 24 hours apart, they departed this earth. Alerting us to their demise by shorting out the entire electrical circuitry of the house, I might add. Handy - how about a piece of toast? No worries! Then the house is plunged into total darkness. We're mid-winter here in Australia (if you can call it winter, which we like to do even though it doesn't resemble winter as depicted in a Walt Disney film) so when the heater died yesterday, I gave it exactly 3 hours before I declared that a replacement would have to be acquired. You see, I'm a cactus, a tropical plant - I can have cold feet in the middle of summer. So, to be warm is important to me. To those close to me, its essential. I lose all capacity to be reasonable if I'm cold. (or hungry, or tired, but those are for other blog postings). The need for music is slightly up Mazlow's hierarchy of needs but is still on the important scale. So down to Joyce Mayne we went.

What's your IQ? The colours a store uses tell you a lot about it, don't they? Joyce Mayne use bright primary colours - Thomas the Tank Engine blue and sunshine yellow. You don't even have to get out of your car to get a feel for what kind of store it is. There's no real ambiance to the store, as such. It's a lively environment, designed in grid sections. There's no soft lighting or elaborate floor plans that lure you through the store with a pre-determined pattern designed to create a cart-filling experience. Having two brothers as electricians, you'd imagine that perhaps some feeling, some synergy, with electrical goods may have permeated my consciousness. But no, I find these stores one step up from Reece Plumbing Outlet and Auto One in terms of their IQ (Interesting Quotient). I will say though that as a shopping experience, it's been one of the more interesting this year. But then it is planted in a virtually barren landscape of shopping episodes, right?

Are you being served? I will say that the two salesmen who served us (one in the stereo department, the other in heaters - those crazy guys!) were excellent. Helpful without being fawning, honest without being too familiar, knowledgeable without delivering a monologue. They even managed to look vaguely professional in their bright blue shirts with yellow trim (not their fault, I should add, it is a uniform after all). I love it when salespeople say things like "I wouldn't buy this model" and give you a good reason why. In our case, the Dimplex was the same product as the DeLonghi but just $40 more. That's good to know, right? So, 25 minutes after arriving, into the back of the car our DeLonghi oil heater and Panasonic CD player went. And the electrical salt & pepper shakers that were for sale at the cash registers for $19 (so, not clever product placement, but very effective).

Sing it Deborah.... so, as I finish up this scintillating post (well, I'm keeping my average up, right?), Deborah Conway is keeping me company and my DeLonghi is keeping me warm. All I need is a cup of Licorice Legs tea and all will be well with the world. Right?

Command performance - TVNZ Good Morning

2010-06-24T12:56:00.005+10:00

G'day and welcome to post #49. I'm just over 6 months into the challenge and am feeling like I have hit an easy patch at the moment. Staying away from the shops is easy, keeping my fingers off my Visa card is easy, keeping away from online temptations is easy. It feels easy right now. Being at home helps, I don't do as much browsing when I'm on home soil. I do most of my shopping when I'm travelling, I've discovered.

Meet you where? I've also worked out that if I arrange a coffee with someone, it's best to do it away from those tantalising places where cafes are snuggled next to boutiques and shoe stores. On the Coast, those places are the Esplanade at Mooloolaba, the Esplanade at Cotton Tree, Hastings Street Noosa, parts of Gympie Terrace in Noosaville and anywhere within spitting distance of the Sunshine Plaza. Love 'em, but best avoided right now. If there was a Coffee Club in an industrial estate that only had businesses like plumbing suppliers, concreters and picture framers, I'd probably be catching up with people there all the time. Not that I have anything against plumbing suppliers, concreters or picture framers. They're usually good people, nice people, salt of the earth. They just sell stuff that generally doesn't grab me, you know? No temptation there.

Command performance. I promised you earlier this week that I'd spill the beans on my experience of being on another New Zealand TV show, this time Good Morning. What was so divine about this experience was they contacted me.... Nice to be on the receiving end of an email asking me if I wanted to be a guest on the show, rather than the one initiating that contact. The delightful and talented Lucy contacted me -- she writes and researches on the show and does a damn fine job of it, I might add. After humming and hawwing about logistics (no, no, wasn't playing hard to get - promise! Just had some working out to do), I accepted their invitation to be on the show on June 10.

Windy city. There's a reason why Wellington has the moniker the windy city. Dan was drinking a cappuccino on the street when we were last there (a few years ago) and the top blew straight off it. Onto him, as it turned out (pity the wind wasn't blowing in the opposite direction, he could have foamed some innocent by-stander instead of himself). So I knew it was going to be blowy and packed accordingly. I also packed the gear I was going to use in the second segment Good Morning wanted me to do, on how to mix'n'match your gear to get the most outfit combinations possible. If you haven't seen that segment, you can check it out on the website.

June 10 was a stunning day. A show-off kind of day -- look at me, aren't I gorgeous? kind of day. My driver Sam picked me up and we chatted as we wound our way through the traffic to Lower Hutt where the studios are. Having studied criminology and now studying film and television, Sam was an interesting conversationalist and I arrived at the studios feeling relaxed (thanks Sam!). The photo above right shows the entrance we used... tell ya, we could have been arriving at the plumbing supplies store I mentioned earlier, for all you could tell from the outside. Television really is a business like any other so I guess the outside of the building doesn't matter all that much. I was glad to be arriving at the back entrance - too many paparazzi at the front. Ha ha!

Sarah was interviewing me and as I arrived in the illustrious back entrance, she was sitting in the green(ish) room, eating yogurt and chatting to the floor people. These are the folks who wear those important looking headsets with built-in microphones (like helicopter pilots wear) and who walk without making a sound. Oh, they also manage the studio floor although I don't know if "floor people" is what appears on their business cards. I use that term with the utmost respect and care, naturally. Sarah and I chatted a bit about this, that and the other. The coat I was wearing, fashion in general, is the colour turquoise really in, you know - the important topics. I then got to cool my heels in the green room before make up. I've only met two TV make up people in my life, and both of them were great. Friendly and chatty, they made me feel relaxed. Considering they also have the power to make you look like Herman Munster, it's a good idea if you're nice to them. Which in my case that day, was very easy.

Studio 11 is where the show was being shot and the closest my camera was allowed was the photo of the door you see above right. No photos allowed inside the studio. No worries. The first segment was the interview, cue sofas and soft lighting. Sarah and I were chatting so much about other things (like living in New York, movies we liked) that she actually had to shush me when were due to go on air. Sarah made it so easy to be relaxed, it felt like we were old friends, and I reckon that comes across on camera. You can see the interview for yourself on the website so I wont say more about it, except Yes it was as fun and relaxed to do as it looks on screen (hopefully it looks like it was fun and relaxed). We were chatting so much in between the segments (while you at home were watching ads about Easy Off Bam! and Lite'N'Easy eating plans) that I forgot to straighten my shirt for the standing up segment. You wouldn't have noticed unless I'd told you, right? Damn! Where is that delete button when I really need it? The second segment was a lot of fun and I really liked how the camera caught Sarah's spontaneous response to some of my nonsense (the amputation comment for example). She's a professional, I know, and its her job to make it easy for guests.... but she really seemed to enjoy the segments. At least, that's what I'm telling myself.

All done. When it was over, Sarah made positive sounds about how great I was (really, she said that, unfortunately the cameras weren't on at that stage, but I wouldn't make this up, would I?) and how much fun the segments were. She then scooted over to the "kitchen area" where they were filming after the break, and I got to pack up all my gear and tiptoe out of the studio. Sneaking over my shoulder to take a photo of the door as I left. It was such a delightful experience and even though the Breakfast show was good, I felt so much more relaxed the second time around. By the time I get to Oprah, I'll be lying on the couch, I'll be so relaxed (no jumping on it for me!). And yes, of course I'm kidding about Oprah... who'd lie on her couch! Right?

Go Shoppa!

2010-06-22T16:12:00.004+10:00

Greetings and welcome to post #48. My average has slipped the last couple of weeks, I know. Up until early June, I'd been blogging here twice a week. And then, bam!, all of a sudden, only one post a week. What happened?

NZTV. Well, Wellington happened mainly. I was invited to go back to New Zealand to appear on another TV show. So, I was lounging around the green room and wandering around the Cuba district of the city instead of sitting in front of my PC, fingers poised, waiting for inspiration. You can head on over to the website to check out the segments if you like (they're at the bottom of the page) - just remember to come back here, ok? Then last week was the big ole halfway point so I wanted to savour that moment for a moment. Now that's over, I'll get back to posting a couple of times a week.

Seriously shoppa. The photo here was taken on the road in Auckland when we were there in May. We were leaving the Auckland Museum when this car appeared in front of us. Holy cow, would ya look at that number plate! we exclaimed to each other. Avoiding the obvious errors in spelling, this appeared to be one person seriously interested in shopping, right? This got me thinking about shopping statistics and here's what I've discovered after an extensive 4.5 minute search on Google:

How much time? The average woman spends up to 8 years of her life shopping. This is according to a OnePoll.com survey. They study all the interesting stuff. Now, they didn't tell us if that was over the average lifespan of say an 80 year old woman, or if that still applies if one is cut down in the prime of life at say 35. So, we don't know if that's one-tenth of a woman's life is spent in the pursuit of purchasing, or say one-quarter. Actually, we have no idea if this statistic is even true. But here's what we do know. In recent months, this statistic has been quoted all over the online world and on one website, comments about it were allowed, and a woman from Cambridge in the UK quipped "only eight?" So that's an interesting response, right? I guess if you're a shopper, then you're doing something that you love and you spend more time at it. The British TV show Shopping is my Life showcases women who spend up to 12 hours a week (and that's every week not some aberrent demented shopping bender) shopping for clothes, shoes and accessories. Some of these women are corporate high flyers who one might imagine have bottom line responsibilities, budgets to manage and team meetings to attend. And yet they still find 12 hours a week to shop. That's dedication. Or something.

How many items? Another study estimates that women buy at least 14 items of clothing a year that they never wear. These items hang or sit in the wardrobe, tags still attached, unworn, unloved, unrecoverable in terms of initial cost outlay. Churchills, who did the study, go on to say that many of these "orphans" are purchased during SALE times. See, I knew that sale really was a four-letter word! That's a lot of wasted shopping time. And a lot of wasted money. Since you're here, reading this, I'll give you a free bonus tip. Ready? If you wouldn't pay full price for it, don't even consider buying it on sale. Why would you? If its cheapness is the major reason you're buying it, something is off with the purchase. Even quality or designer stuff is not worth buying if the only reason you're doing so is because its cheap.

Actually, you know what? The same goes for buying designer stuff just because it's expensive or "label". That kind of gear usually has a high show-off factor and doesn't do much to express the real you. Now if the real you is a show-off, well, that's another story. Go ahead and buy it! (I've been known to occasionally show off.... ok, I heard your sharp intake of breath there as you gasped in surprise. It's true. So I'm not saying buying show-off-y clothes is bad or wrong. Clearly it's a personal choice).

Rounding up. So, how's that round up of interesting lies, I mean statistics, about shopping? I found it fascinating. Next time I might do a review of my experience of being on NZTV's Good Morning, as it was a bit different to my Breakfast experience. Different city for a start. Brunette presenter. Different questions. I mean, the differences are endless. Well, they'd fill a blog posting anyway.

5.12 weeks. And in the meantime, I'll be congratulating myself at the 1.2 months of my life I have back, now that I'm not spending one-tenth of this year shopping. Sheesh, when you look at it that way, that's a lot of time that you could be spending in so many other ways. Right?

Halfway! Marking Six Months

2010-06-15T14:29:00.003+10:00

Greetings and welcome to post #47! If this is your first visit to Shopping my Wardrobe, a special welcome to you today. For the new visitor, you might find a quick tour around some of our most popular articles helpful.... last week's posting shows you where you might like to stop off for a quick visit, before coming back to you join us here.

Today is the halfway point of the challenge. It is June 15 2010 and I've been on this challenge for six months. The photo accompanying this posting is apt - it's a real road sign from the town of Kimba in South Australia, which is situated halfway across Australia on the Eyre Highway. I've not been to Kimba but it could be that that sign is the most interesting thing there. The outback is only romantic in the movies.

You said it was big, but I never knew it was.... big! Ok! So, we're halfway huh? Who knew I'd make it this far? C'mon - show of hands now, don't be shy. I'm a pretty stick-at-it kind of person; there's not much I simply give up on. But this was a real challenge, not one of those faux challenges that aren't really hard at all. Nosiree - no mock quest here! And why was this such a challenge? Well, let's start with the obvious. I love clothes. Some of them even love me. My wardrobe is humongous -- if you want to see some shots of it, click here to go to our new website, and check out the NZTV segment from Breakfast. They showed far too much of my wardrobe on that segment, but then again, I did send them the file (who knew?). ANyway, it gives you a visual of how large my wardrobe is. It has furniture in for Pradas sake! I have been known to sit in with with a girlfriend, champagne glasses in hand, for minutes at a time.

If you build it....This is one of the reasons this challenge has been a true test for me. I've been building my wardrobe for over a decade - I buy well so I don't need to throw things out for seasonal reasons - if it's not "in" it can't really go "out". And I like what I have so I don't tend to throw things out for "I'm over this now" reasons - I'm fairly loyal to my clothes. I don't have many 'orphans' so I don't need to throw things out because they don't work -- everything in my wardrobe pays its rent and plays well with all my other clothes.

Tell me again... why? Being asked this question a few times recently, I've had time to reflect on and polish up my answer to it. And halfway through the challenge is a good time to review why I'm doing this challenge. There are actually five reasons I'm doing this challenge, which you can skip on over to the new site and read. What I'd like to talk about today, on this special day, are the psychological and emotional reasons (Reason #3).

Psyched, man! The biggest thing I have learned so far on this challenge is that I've had an unconscious set of habits around clothing consumption (that's part A) and that I truly am able to develop new habits (that's part B). Ok, so I know about changing habits and patterns - that's been a large part of the work I did as a corporate facilitator, coach and trainer. But it's one thing to help other people attempt to change their habits and patterns, and it's quite another to be your own best coach and change your own.

I'm calling this the Silencing of the Seagulls. Remember the seagulls from Finding Nemo - chanting "mine! mine! mine!" when they saw something (like a potato chip) they wanted? That's what the voice in my head was like when I saw something in a store that I desired. And I'm talking clothes, shoes, earrings, handbags, here, people...

Emotocon. Well, forget the 'con'. The emotional stuff has been owning up to that voice -- who wants to admit you have Pixar characters in your brain? -- and really claiming that. The 9.6 degree of difficulty with this manoeuvre is not making myself bad or wrong because of it. I've felt a range of emotions as I've reflected on my buying behaviour - a dusting of delight, a spritz of shame, a pinch of pleasure, a sprinkle of self-loathing.... you know, the usual. What this buffet table of emotions has led me to is recognition that there is stuff to be uncovered, work to be done, unconsciousness to be awoken in this a-here space. And I'm doing it. Some days the editing voice is strong ("you idiot - how could you have gotten into a situation where you own 3, yes, 3, animal print trench coats? children in India don't even have one!"). Carl Jung spoke to this point when he said "we cannot change anything unless we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate, it oppresses". So, being a fan of Jung, on other days I'm kinder on myself ("you genius! how did you ever convince yourself to buy 3, yes 3, animal print trench coats! there are women in Paris who only own two!").

So far, the emotional and psychological factors have been the biggest hurdles and the most rewarding wins... I feel like I've just come out of the Thieves Forest. A sense of satisfaction at where I've come from, and a growing sense of anticipation about what's to come. And who knows what the next 6 months will bring? Large hail? Damaging winds? Margaritas with umbrellas?

Thank you. To those who have supported me by reading this blog and contacting me "off-blog" with words of inspiration, encouragement and support... I salute you. I've never yearned to be Robinson Crusoe and don't believe that anything worthwhile is ever accomplished on one's own. Basically, I need you. There, I said it. I need you to keep reading, to keep emailing, and to keep sending those cheques. Ok, no-one has sent a cheque, but it's never too late to start, right? Ha!

What now? Well, it's onward and upward... another six months to go. My focus will remain on blogging my usual fresh, fruity and faintly informed insights here. And I'd like to grow this blog a little. You can help! I'd love it if you could share the word about the challenge and this blog and its matching website.... If you're new here and aren't yet a Follower, please become one -- it's free! (and you wont get sent any rubbishy emails) -- Followers tells me I have a readership (and any passing literary agents that we have a potential best-seller.... sorry, did I say that out loud?). When you write into the great boundless blogosphere, knowing people are reading makes a huge difference to your levels of enthusiasm. (Why am I writing that in the third person? It makes a huge difference to my levels of enthusiasm!) So thanks for reading, thanks for being (or becoming) a Follower, and thanks for sharing the word.

Your own year without clothes shopping? If this idea has taken root somewhere in your brain or body.... pay attention! I wish I'd had what I'm developing to help me as I've been going through this challenge.... But you don't have to wish - I'm building it, just for you. Oooh, what a creative delight this project represents! I guess that's what Albert Einstein meant (I'm pulling out the big guns with the quotes in this post, aren't I?) when he said "in the middle of difficulty lies opportunity". Right?

A quick review - we are HERE

2010-06-08T15:43:00.009+10:00

Hi there good readers of this blog. Thank you for stopping by. This is post #46 - we're really chalking them up, aren't we? This week, I'm going to do a quick review of some of the favourite posts from the last six months -- that's how long I've been at this blogging thing and any day now, I'll know what I'm doing.

Shopping in review. The photo accompanying this post was taken in the Auckland Museum. It talks about, well, shopping and the rise of the consumer. The mid 19th century was when the shopping centre, as we know it, was first created. Macy's in New York, for example, was opened in 1860. Two years prior to that, a French writer, Emile Zola, was quoted as saying that department stores are "cathedrals of commerce for a congregation of customers". Ha! Cathedrals of commerce indeed! Even all those hundreds of years ago, the competition for customers attention was fierce and tactics such as using celebrity visits were used. The more things change, the more they stay the same huh? Only now we have Lady GaGa and Justin Beiber and then they had Louisa May Alcott and Tchaikovsky. Same same, right?

I thought that photo of a sign was a good accompaniment to this blog posting. Because we're marking a moment in time with this blog. We're looking at the signpost and it says "almost halfway through the challenge! - You Are Here".

What's good here? I've written nearly 50 blog posts since I started writing here in December 2009. That's when I started my 12 month challenge of "shopping my wardrobe" and not going clothing shopping for one year. The posts here vary in quality, research undertaken, readability and (non)sensibility. I try to make each one a little bit fun and a little bit fruity. Here's my top picks:

What do clothes mean? They don't mean everything and they don't mean nothing. It's gotta be somewhere in between, right?

Mix'n'Match. This is really what "shopping your wardrobe" is all about -- having a bunch of stuff in your wardrobe that you can reach for, that make you feel like you are, well, shopping in a store (even if it's not a very large store).

Colour (or color for my north American friends). We know that colour makes a big difference to how we feel. But how does it make a difference to how we look?

The official start. I posted on December 15 2009, which was the official start of the challenge. This was my third blog posting, like ever, and the reason it wasn't the first posting was because I was easing my way into things. This post wont be winning any prizes, but it is an important marker in time.

Resist and Avoid (the Twin Towers to Defeat Temptation). This post in March describes my "falling off the wagon" event and my thinking, at the time, of the best way to stay on it for the rest of the challenge. Thank goodness I didn't drop anchor there and May was a big month for me in that department- lots of learning and peeling back the layers of what the emotional elements of the challenge might be. In Going In, I explored how much I had in common with the seagulls in Finding Nemo. And in my post on Just Looking I wax lyrical about my captivation with clothes and what the crux of this challenge might actually be -- if it's not "resisting and avoiding", that is.

Three Kinds of Shoppers. A little bit of lunacy, but possibly with a hint of truth to it, right?

Must Haves. This was me musing about how the fashion industry gets us reaching into our handbags every season for fear of being, gasp, out of style and not "bang on trend" (ooh, the horror!). Related to this is the mystery of What's In and Why, which (even having it explained in The Devil Wears Prada) I'm still not sure I understand.

Not Quite New. This post explores the options for injecting something new into your wardrobe that's not quite new to the planet. I've got one more category to add to this group, so you'll just have to keep reading to see what it is!

NZTV. I was blessed by being the focus of a 7 minute segment on New Zealand's Breakfast show in early May, and I reflected on that experience here. I'm to be a guest on NZTV's Good Morning show this coming Thursday (June 10), so no doubt another posting will be forthcoming about that experience.

You like? Come follow! If you like what you've read here, please become a follower. It's the only way I'm going to get a book deal - by getting loads and loads of followers! There's an easy-to-follow set of instructions when you click on Follow, in the left hand column.....just scroll down a little bit. (and thanks - I'll mention you in my Acknowledgements, when I sign that book deal)

So.... that it? Yep - that's the round up of the "best ever" blog posts, rodeo goers. Feel free to read all 45 other posts, of course, not just my top picks! Blogs are the online equivalent of Farsi and run in reverse chronological order... the first written are at the bottom and the most recent at the top. Like the girlfriends of Russell Brand, right?

But Wait! There's One More Thing! There really is. I'd love for you to jump on over to the site that goes with this blog --- http://www.shopyourwardrobe.com/ -- and check it out. AND, I'd love for you to click on the button that signals your interest in doing your own Year Without Clothes Shopping, with my support! I'm developing a 12-month membership club for women (and men) who want to stop the cycle of consuming, take control of what may be an out of control habit and "shop your wardrobe". Every week, you'll get a shot of inspiration and support into your Inbox that'll help keep you on the straight and narrow. You'll be able to start anytime you like, and we'll make it as fun and fulfilling as its possible for it to be.

Calling early birds! Once our early bird slots for the membership program are filled, we're going to double the price. Our early birds who signal their interest will be able to join for $1/week. You find that in change under the car mats, by rummaging through your husband's golf shorts, or lurking in the bottom of your handbag, surely? We know it's a crazy price for what we'll be offering, but we're in this together and I want to make it affordable. We plan on being open for business in August ...so please check it out and click that link, chick!

And here's the thing. You really have no idea what 12 months of "shopping your wardrobe" and not going clothes shopping will be like and will do for you ... until you do it. You can't read a book (or a fabulous blog like mine) and discover what it's like. You can't simply imagine your way through a challenge like this - you have to live it. You'll never know what possibilities exist, unless you sign up and do it. Right?

Recycled - buy it here!

2010-06-04T10:39:00.006+10:00

Hello and welcome to the most glorious Friday morning. We are up to post #45 and today I'd like to talk about recycled clothing. I arrived early to meet a girlfriend for a coffee the other day and got browsing through a home/interiors magazine. Just love those - even the old ones are fun!

Recycling for Reinvention. There was a one-page story on using recycled things for decorating - things like taking an old crumbling lampshade and painting it in fresh contemporary colours. Or taking someones old correspondence and putting it into an old frame, which could be repainted -- how's that? An electricity bill from 1975 would look sensational in a silver painted frame! Or how about a collection of old jars and containers as grouped decorator items - nothing like an old IXL jam tin together with a milk bottle and tobacco tin to really grab the eye. But we're forgetting about the visual impact that stacking old tattered books together with old balls of string found in grandpa's shed has. The options are endless. Head down into the kitchen or shed of someone who was born before 1939 and you could pick up all kinds of decorator items that, if craftily restored and displayed, could revitalise your interiors!

Buy it here! But what really caught my attention and made me laugh was how all of these recycled old things could be purchased! This piece had a little stockists box at the bottom of it, listing every item in the photograph and how much it was for sale for! "Rusty old metal lamp base that will give you gangrene if you catch your finger on it - $250" or how about "corroded tobacco tins with traces of original tobacco from 1946 - $39 each" or "pile of bills from old Mrs Hackett's garage sale, found in bottom drawer of Laminex telephone hall table with genuine Naugahyde seat, all bills dated the year 1977 - $3 each or $99 for the lot".

Slightly exaggerated. But only slightly. Ok, I've made all of those up - it wasn't as bad as all that. But it was still hilarious -- all the old things in the article were for sale from a decorator shop! Isn't the point of recycling that you don't purchase anything "new" -- "new antiques" being an oxymoron? Isn't recycling about discovering truly old things that someone considers to be rubbish, and revamping them? You don't go looking for recycled things at an interiors store. Do you? Recycle is a verb, isn't it? It's something that we do, not something that we purchase. And the rather scary part of all this was the underlying message that recycling is a decorator phase - it's "bang on trend" to have recycled stuff in your house.

Recycled clothing. Which brings me to this challenge and recycled clothing. Is buying second hand just a phase? Is it even a phase? In blog #41 we talked about Not Quite New Clothing and how there are many options available if one wishes to add 'new' items to one's wardrobe, but doesn't wish to purchase new. There's a 4th options -- clothing exchanges -- which I'll talk about in a separate post coming up. For now, I'd like to take a moment to consider what recycled clothing really means. Have a squiz at the photo I found to accompany this post -- now that's recycled clothing for you! Who thinks of these things, I wonder? What an inventive thing to do -- literally turning clothing into a rug. Anyway, back to recycled clothing. It's not a trend, or if it is, we're all missing the point. Right?

It's Art

2010-05-31T16:43:00.005+10:00

Hello lovely readers and welcome to blog #44. I've just found out that Blogger (the good people who provide the software so I can bring this blog to you for free) have this thing called Blogs of Note. As far as I can tell, it's a way of bringing attention to blogs that are, er, noteworthy in some positive way... like, say, they're well-written or entertaining or possibly even useful. Something like that. I reckon this blog is worthy of note, don't you? What note, I'm not sure - perhaps C-major?

For today's post, brought to you by the number 18, because that's the current temperature in Celsius here on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, I'd like to talk to you about Art. And no I'm not talking about Mr Garfunkel (the famous songwriting and singing partner to Paul Simon). Or the Broadway show (which I saw on Broadway in 1998 with my friend Tara. The curtains opened and there was Alan Alda sitting on a coffee table on the stage. It was such a buzzy moment!). No, I'm talking about art of a different sort entirely.

Fashion Art. (there's a natural acronym that those two words present, isn't there? It's like Country Rap - we call it Crap, which is a real song). So, when I say art, what I mean is art in the world of fashion. I've pondered before (remember blog #38? (well, who doesn't?)) about where the fashions that we find in our stores come from. If The Devil Wears Prada can be relied upon as a credible source, then the catwalks of the world's major fashion shows have a lot to do with it. Which downright astounded me. How can something that starts as that (note picture above as Exhibit A) end up influencing what I wear to work if my job is being someone other than Lady GaGa? Or something I might wear out to the movies and dinner with my boyfriend, if I'm someone other than Lady GaGa? And even Lady GaGa may baulk at wearing what's depicted in the above photo -- she'd certainly get some interesting requests from people sitting behind her in the movie theatre, anyway.

This confused, confounded, perplexed and puzzled me so much. Just how was it possible to make the leap between catwalk creations of stupefying proportions, and what Ms Everyday uses to clothe herself?

Mr McQueen. I was reading a magazine in Cambridge, a cute little town on the north island of New Zealand, a few weeks ago on Alexander Lee McQueen. A 4-time British Designer of the Year, earlier this year Alexander Lee McQueen took his own life. The article chronicled his meteoric rise to the top of the fashion pile, starting when he was around 24. It recounted some of his more spectacular catwalk shows, which beggared belief - models dressed as mental institution inmates, double-amputee women as models. But my favourite was the story about a cat walk show where the finale was a model (I'm guessing she was human, although it was hard to tell as she was so thin and pale, she may have been man made) wearing a white strapless dress being spray painted with black paint by robots commandeered from the Audi car factory. It was said that McQueen was so moved by this spectacle that he wept.

What is the point of all this, the inner blue-blazer-wearing, feet-on-ground, sensible-practical-reliable, cost-appropriate-purchasing me, wondered? It was while I was reading this article, complete with photos of some of his creations (like the one above) that I had an epiphany. Which occurred in between alternating states of rising respect for the success McQueen achieved in an astoundingly competitive and cut-throat world and utter amazement that anyone could take his work seriously.

It's art. The catwalk creations of stupendous proportions, like the one pictured above by McQueen, aren't fashion. These creations are art, and they happen to be being displayed in the fashion world. And art has its own rules and conventions. It has its appreciators, and its detractors. Art isn't intended to be practical, at least not always. Art isn't intended to be taken literally, at least not always. Art is its own thing. And what Alexander Lee McQueen created was art.

Really? That's the best explanation I can come up with. It doesn't make sense to me any other way. Because what makes something worthy of being "art" has a lot to do with who's doing the talking; it's subjective. It's in the eye of the beholder. What is confusing crap to me is inspired inventiveness to someone else. So when I look at the catwalk creations of designers like McQueen and try to make a connection to "real world" fashions, I can't do it. The only way I can appreciate the output of people like McQueen is to view it as art. And that makes it OK that I don't understand it. Art isn't always supposed to be understood, right? And it sure isn't meant to be worn picking up the kids from school. Right?

What do clothes mean? Do clothes matter?

2010-05-27T14:33:00.010+10:00

Hello and welcome to blog #43. We are deep in Autumn here in Australia and it is simply glorious! Days have just enough crispness in them to make layering necessary but are not too anything -- cool or warm, wet, dry, sunny, cloudy, windy, mountainous.

In blog #28 (Lyle and Kasey) back in early April, I promised I'd come back to this topic of what does clothing mean. I mean, it's just not possible that clothing is only and always just way of hiding our nakedness, is it? For some people in the world (and its the third that I'm thinking specifically of here), this is undoubtedly true. Sobering moment, with a silent prayer and moments' silence about how blessed the rest of us are.

For the rest of us, clothing is a marker, a message sender, a meaningful form of expression, even if we're not entirely sure what it's saying. Ok, here's some examples I've come up with to bolster this side of the discussion that clothing matters.

If clothing did not matter:

no Australian or British teenager, attending a high school that enforces the wearing of a school uniform, would ever feel the need to differentiate themselves in some small way from the crowd. There would be no "huh, uniform says my socks must be white -- ha! I'll rebel: mine will be white with a blue stripe!". I remember my high school uniform-wearing rebellion. The girls at our school wore white shirts and frog green skirts (that's the colour, not the texture, of the skirt). I delighted in wearing different and brightly coloured bras under my white shirts. Schools being schools, it became something of a game for my classmates to check out the colour I was wearing that day. I so beg the forgiveness of every teacher who ever had me in their class during Grade 11 and 12. But I should put this in perspective: my rebellion, in uniform-wearing ways and all others, was considered mild in the school I attended. Mild, people. It's all context, right?

no American teenager, attending a high school that does not enforce the wearing of a school uniform, would ever be teased or picked on for wearing something that others deemed to be out of style or geeky or unusual. Think Molly Ringwald in "Pretty in Pink". Those "richies" making fun of her $15 second-hand shoes and mix'n'match pink volcanic ensembles - she showed 'em! And thank god for Duckie (in an extreme departure for Jon Cryer from his character in Two and a Half Men) who dressed in even more eyebrow-raising styles than Molly did. And what about James Spader's character, Stef, wearing those crinkled linen suits -- really? He represented the "in" crowd with that get-up? Yikes! Ok, my '80s nostalgia is over now, but evidence exists elsewhere! There's "Clueless" with more of a makeover theme to it, but the same "here's whatcha wear if you're IN, people!" And don't get me started on Sesame Street.

If clothing did not matter:

Muslim women would not wear the abaya and hijab

Arab men would not wear the keffiyeh

Catholic cardinals would not wear crimson red, and Catholic Bishops would not wear purple (and Priests black)... in what is a regimented and respected dress code that is never wavered from

If clothing did not matter:

there would not be television shows devoted to the "after Oscars" workshopping of the best and worst dressed actors from the awards ceremony

there would not be the countless number of make over shows! Style by Jury -- complete strangers assessing your personal qualities based on how you look. Style Her Famous - making you over based on the style clues left by celebrities. How Do I Look? - makeover show that takes a hapless or hopeless case and injects style into their eyeballs with the help of 3 'accomplices'. Trinny and Susannah - do not get me started on this pair, but one cannot ignore the fact that they are out there on TV, telling everyone the stuff they're telling them about how to dress. How to Look Good Naked - you wouldn't think this was about clothes, really, based on the title of the show, would you? Nevertheless, it is. The gorgeous and generous Gok (in the UK - the US show has another host, Carson from Queer Eye) helping women with appalling body image issues to take the blinkers off. And these are just the shows I can remember off the top of my head. A thorough 65-second investigation of the Austar TV guide would possibly yield the names of a number of other shows in this genre
Branded clothing companies would not sponsor the hosts of high profile television shows(eg: Pippa is dressed by Portmans. She is. Really. There's even a piece on the NZTV website about what Pippa is wearing)

we would never have known that Britney was not wearing underwear

If clothing did not matter:

I would not feel a certain way when I wear this, and another way entirely when I wear that

You and I could meet for a coffee and swap clothes and we wouldn't feel any different to how we felt in our own clothes (ok, this does not apply to me and my friend Jennifer, who, when I was in San Francisco last year, we actually did swap clothes quite a bit. Gosh, I looked good in her gear)

there's be no such thing as power dressing or 'dress for success'. Whole rainforest's could have been saved because 147 books on this topic would not have been written and published, including the classic How a Navy Blazer Changed My Life. Real title.

no man would ever wear a tie. Ever.
Ben Sherman would not be putting signs up in his stores like the one in the photograph above. Big bold statement, Ben! Taken in Auckland.

And just to finish on reality. If clothing did not matter:

Superman would not need to wear red underpants on the outside of his blue tights

Catwoman would not need to wear that skin pinching black Lycra

Batman would not need to wear that beard chaffing and only-flattering-if-you-don't-have-a-double-chin face mask

We've only scratched the surface of the examples of if clothing did not matter. Right? For those of us who have a choice in what we wear, clothing makes a difference. It matters. It says something on our behalf. Some of us reckon we know what our clothes are saying. Other people claim to not have thought about it. That's ok - whether you're conscious of it or not, whether you're paying attention to it or not, and whatever you're saying or not, our clothing has something to say, too. Right?

Unpack me!

2010-05-24T11:50:00.006+10:00

G'day from blog #42. We got home from New Zealand on Saturday. I reckoned that if there was a bridge from Auckland to Brisbane, it would have been quicker to drive. All that airporting just soaks up the hours, doesn't it? You practically need a packed lunch to get through security and customs alone.

By the time we got home, a mere 14 hours after leaving Auckland, I was a bit over it. Maybe that should be Over It, because it was a non-specific, indefinable feeling of general testiness. I could've given Oscar the Grouch a run for his money.

The unjoys of unpacking. I mentioned in blog #33 that the process of packing I quite enjoy (as does Ashton Kutcher, apparently). But unpacking? Not quite so enjoyable. Maybe it's the feeling that the holiday is undeniably over now. The impending "back to work"ness that comes with putting things away, even if its been a work trip. Whatever it is, unpacking does not draw one in quite as much as its opposite. Its moments like this that I wish I had a personal valet. (there are other moments when I feel this too. Like when my woolen jackety cardigany things need hand washing. Man, those things are heavy when they're wet!). But I noticed that on Saturday, something had changed.

This time it was different! Whilst it wasn't a barrel of laughs, unpacking from this trip wasn't quite so bad. Wasn't quite as much of a chore. And I worked out why that was. It's because there was only a few more things to unpack than I had packed one month ago. There were no new clothes or shoes or accessories to find new homes for! The new items that were brought home on this trip were:

a kiwi (that's the fruit, not the bird) scented tea light candle from the Devonport markets. $1.50

a Koru glass piece to go with our 2 other Koru glass pieces bought in 2006. This one has more of a "figure 8" shape to it (the ones we already had were more like a "6" and a "9" in shape. I'm sure the Maori people who created these beautiful shapes would be so happy to hear they have numerical equivalents). $69.90

a miniature decorative wooden Maori paddle with beautifully carved 'pointy end' to it. About $80

a large (and very heavy) white platter with a native palm tree embedded on it. Gift.

6 DVDs (Confessions of a Shopaholic; The Hustler; Pretty in Pink; Rachel Getting Married; The Business of Strangers; So I Married An Axe Murderer)

a vegetarian cookbook

Those are the extras we brought home with us. Finding homes for all those things was easy, as they either had an existing place to go (DVDs and cookbook) or I'd thought about where I wanted to put them before I bought them (glass Koru and wooden paddle).

What temptation? I was also really pleased that I'd not bought anything on the trip, and not had a terrible time resisting something irresistible. I'd exercised some habit-breaking muscles by going into some stores for the sole and exclusive purpose of appreciating without consuming. And I'd learned a whole lot about the world of media. Altogether, a stunningly successful trip! Now it's back to business as usual in the home office, which feels like a great place to be right now. Feels like All's Right With The World (you know that feeling, right?).

More Right Feeling. In our other online enterprise, I've revamped the I'm Listening Now home page and the two click-through pages behind it -- there are new words (written by me) and a new image that illustrates our "power up your best self" new tone/feeling. You can explore more about this All's Right With The World thing by going to this page and doing the 45 second exercise there. Something about being away from the everyday brought me more in touch with my creativity. New Zealand was an 'opening' experience. More creativity, more connectedness, more clarity. 3 darn good C's. Right?

Not Quite New shopping

2010-05-21T11:12:00.006+10:00

Welcome to blog #41. This blog is now officially older than me. It's also our last full day in New Zealand and the city is obviously grieving for our imminent departure as the skies have opened and the downpour hasn't stopped all day.

Today I'd like to talk about the different kind of "not quite new" shopping that you can do. This was prompted by yet another magazine article where three women who like to "op shop" were profiled. As I read the profile of each woman, it was clear that two of them were indeed true "op shoppers" whilst one of them was a vintage shopper. The magazine had jumbled the terms up together so it seemed like a good thing to unravel them.

Op Shopping. This kind of shopping is done in stores where the clothes have been donated and the only people who make any money out of it are the charities or churches who run it. The person donating the clothing doesn't make any money (just in case you missed that part). I found this super guide to op shopping online so if you can read more about it here if you like. The clothes you find in op shops tend to be a the lower end of the quality scale, are usually 'contemporary' (you generally wont find a genuine pair of 1930's ladies leather gloves for instance), and are priced at a low level, like $5 for a t-shirt or $10 for a pair of jeans. That kind of thing.

A number of the big charities (such as St Vincent de Paul, Lifeline or the Salvation Army) have a process for sorting out their donations, whereby everything donated is sent to one warehouse location, no matter where it was collected from or donated to. So I could drop something off at my local Sunshine Coast Lifeline store, and it will be transported to the big Lifeline warehouse in Brisbane. The clothing is then sorted into categories, and shipped out around the State or country. I chatted to a lady in the Lifeline Brisbane City store and she said that was how their store got to have a boutique feel to it. Their store got all the 'brand' items of better quality.

You can get good stuff at op shops, but it's a huge treasure hunt and you're just as likely to find poor quality gear that you yourself would get rid of as you will a designer piece at a tiny fraction of its new price.

Vintage. Vintage is period shopping where clothing of a particular era is for sale. For example, one store in the Haight Ashbury region of San Francisco has their vintage store organised by the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. I don't know if the 1980s are yet considered old enough for a vintage category of their own yet. So, you could walk around this store and collect items from those decades, if that's your thing. This is not op shopping as the quality is generally very high (although sometimes its patchy, just like it would have been in during the era in which the clothing was new) and there is a real dedication to authenticity in vintage shopping. I found this online vintage shopping guide which was US-centric but kinda neat.

There are two people who make money out of vintage shopping - the store selling the clothing and the person donating it. The profits are usually split 60-40 or thereabouts with the store getting the greater share.

If you like era-dressing, then vintage shopping is a great option to build your wardrobe. Vintage clothing will not look like a current version of that style though -- so a genuine 1970s trench coat will have style differences to it that distinguish it from a 1970s-inspired current trench coat. There's always some new twist to era-inspired clothing that makes them different to the original... it may be the fabric that's different or the shape of the collar or the cut under the arm - whatever it is, vintage items clearly come from a different place in time. Vintage shopping will help you reproduce the looks from a particular era. Sticking with the 1970s (one of my all-time favourites and not just because I was born in it), vintage shopping will help you get the look Goldie Hawn had in Foul Play or Jane Fonda sported in The China Syndrome. Fashion icons of their time, right?

Vintage shopping is not op shopping and neither is it consignment shopping. It's its own thing.

Consignment shopping. Consignment shopping is the third category of "not quite new" shopping. Consignment stores are where you take in 'gently used' quality clothing that you leave with the store for them to sort and sell for you. Consignment stores usually have very clear and strictly adhered to rules on what items they will accept. These rules usually are about quality, brands they accept, newness (they usually wont take items that are too old, which would make them vintage), and the state the items are in. I blogged about pre-loved shopping in blog #21 and its one of my favourite kinds of shopping, although there are some pitfalls to it.

Two people make money out of consignment stores, the same as for vintage shopping. The consignment store will usually take the lions share of the items sold, and you'll take about 30 - 40% of what the item sold for. Consignment or pre-loved stores will also reject some items for their own reasons - they might not think they'll sell, or they don't fit with the direction of their store, or some other reason which is sure to offend you if you're the one bringing them in.

Consignment shopping is different to op shopping (quality) and vintage (newness) and both on price.

Wrap up. So, that's the wrap up on the three kinds of "not quite new" shopping. There are so many great options if you want to sprinkle your wardrobe with something that's new to you, but isn't new to the planet. And that's got to be good thing. Right?

Just Looking!

2010-05-18T17:26:00.003+10:00

G'day and thanks for joining us here at blog #40. I've just passed the 5 month mark and things are tracking well. As far as I can tell anyway!

This photo (right) was taken recently and it has summed up my approach to almost all the "shopping" I've done lately (well, except shopping done in grocery stores and other utilitarian places like shoe repairers, video stores, dry cleaners -- can you imagine if it weren't? Imagine walking into the Blue & White Dry Cleaners - "just browsing!").

Just Looking. If one is "just looking", does that actually qualify as "shopping"? I looked it up and there seems to be some grey area here. Shopping is defined as having some intention to it, namely the intention to purchase.

My little win. Today, we were wandering around the swanky suburb of Ponsonby in Auckland. We came across a nice-looking pre-loved store called Encore: Fashion Recycle. When we first saw it, my reaction was immediate: do not go in that shop! Possible danger! It was almost a physical aversion and it happened before my brain had time to join the party. It was only after I was fortified with a bottle of organic apple & pear juice that I had to time to actually consider the situation. Thus fortified (in all manner of ways), I was able to untangle those jumbled thoughts and decided that I could, if I wanted, have a quick look in this store as we passed it going back. And this I did. At the threshold, I spoke quite firmly to myself but with Dan as my witness, saying "I'm going in! But I'm not buying anything!". A woman coming out of the store gave us a smile and making a fairly natural assumption, assumed I was talking to my husband and not myself. She said "you negotiate girl!" I should've got her number.

I like clothes. Ok, let's have a collective Homer Simpson moment of "duh!" here. I have a walk-in wardrobe of generous proportions and it is filled with clothing I have lovingly collected over a long period of time. So it's pretty obvious that I like clothes (and some of them quite like me, too, I've discovered, although others do not appear to like me as much if their less-than-flattering appearance on my body is anything to go by. Items such as those usually are exited fairly swiftly once their true feelings about me are discovered).

So, looking at clothes is something that I enjoy. Why shouldn't I look at it? Whilst I do not wish to spend my life in a state of "just looking", I also don't want to feel that clothing stores are the enemy and that I cannot enjoy being inside them from time to time. Now that I get down to it, the pattern I have been trying to break is:

oooh - look at this! Isn't this lovely, how gorgeous, (appreciating noises)

and

I must possess it

This is really the heart of the matter. The soul and centre of it. It's the vanilla essence of the challenge.

What is it not? When I worked with corporate clients doing stuff around strategy, well, we never called it 'stuff' to start with, but I would usually suggest that when they think about what they want, they also think about the opposite. It can be very illuminating to think of what you don't want - it can help shed more or a different light on what you do want. This is called "moving away from" goals or ideas or thoughts or whatever it is for you. Someone a lot smarter than me thought that one up, but it's a good one to use when you remember to. So, it's a good thing for me to consider what this challenge is not.

The challenge is not to attempt to stop enjoying clothes. I would need the assistance of a large ice pick and a medical officer with dubious ethical standards to effect such a change in my personality and personal preferences. And hey, I gotta be me, right? You could have a go at being me (and some days I'd happily outsource the job of being me), but it probably wouldn't work out real well. And the me that I am loves and appreciates clothes.

The challenge is not to avoid clothing stores. What's tripped me up about this one is that gamblers avoid casinos. And alcoholics avoid bars. And drug addicts avoid particular street corners or private schools where they purchase their drugs. (ok, so that's a joke there about private schools, no offence meant for any particular private school or the private school system in its totality, in any state, territory, county, region, country, continent or in any area located anywhere in the known solar system. really). But I'm trying to get my head around this one, so I can have more positive experiences like I did in Encore today. I enjoyed looking at what they had (lots of black, as it turned out) but I didn't buy anything AND I didn't feel particularly inclined to buy anything. I just enjoyed being in there, having a quick squiz around, and moseying on with my day.

Still looking? No. When I know I'm not going to buy anything, it changes the way I look at clothing in stores. The intention to buy is not there. Maybe I'm further along in breaking the pattern than I give myself credit for. Wouldn't that be good news. Right?

Deco-dant style

2010-05-16T14:33:00.003+10:00

Greetings from Napier, the Art Deco capital of the world! We are up to blog #39 and thanks for reading. Napier is on the east coast of the north island of New Zealand and has a reputation the world over for 'doing deco'. After the 1931 earthquake, the city was rebuilt by three architects (and many builders and craftsmen) who all agreed that a consistent style should be used for every new building.

Art schmart, deco schmeco? The art deco style is very distinctive. In architectural terms, two iconic buildings characterise the style, both in New York: The Rockefeller Center (now famous to a whole new generation as being the workplace of those funny folk on the TV show 30 Rock) and the Chrysler Building.

Art deco had an influence on everything during its time - architecture; car design; interiors for everything from homes to offices to ships; modes of travel; music (art deco is sometimes used interchangeably with the term the jazz age); and of course clothing. The way I think of art deco is: if you can imagine Agatha Christie's famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot wearing it, travelling on it, eating in it, dining with someone dressed like it, displaying it in his Whitehaven Mansions apartment -- then its likely to be art deco.

You can read up about art deco in many places on the internet, but here's the bits that were relevant to this blog. Art deco had three main influences:

the massive progress of science, technology and automation and the effects of these on the industrialised world, like factories, car manufacture, ship building, skyscraper construction and other male-dominated and gripping areas of enterprise like that. How this showed up in the art deco style was in the use of "speed lines" and lightning flashes (the zig zag pattern)
the dawning of a new era and overthrowing of old conventions. How this showed up in the art deco style was use of new-day-dawning motifs such as "sun rays" and rising sun images. They also used contemporary images of the day to embody this influence and one of these was the Egyptian motifs. King Tutankhamen's tomb was discovered in 1922 and as the London Times co-sponsored the expedition, they were kind enough to publish and distribute photographs of it in their newspaper. Art deco designers the world over grasped a hold of those icons and images and wove them into their designs. In Napier, indigenous Maori designs were also integrated into the art deco styles. This was considered very avante garde at the time (and startlingly obvious to us now)
the increasing independence of women. We were still a long way from Betty Freidan's The Feminine Mystique and Germaine Greer was yet to be born, but women were making inroads into mobilising themselves out of the Second Class Citizen car, and were achieving things that we can't imagine having to fight for now, like getting the vote. Art deco was in its heyday after World War One as women were breaking out of the box and doing eye-brow raising things like wearing pants, especially if they had a temporary job like being a truck mechanic in the army reserve. Many of the photographs of art deco show art deco fashions, as in the drop-waist, feathered head-band, ankle-strap, opera-length tied pearls kind of fashion. But when it comes to the graphics, motifs, images and icons of the art deco style as it relates to Influence #3, it seems to come down to naked ladies in athletic poses. These are usually bronzed and either holding up lamps the size of giant beach balls, twirled around long drapey pieces of fabric in Cirque Du Soleil style, or contorted into a back-arching pose that makes you wonder if her vertebrae is perhaps made of rubber. Maybe the thinking was: if women are independent enough to wear pants and have jobs and fix carburetors and vote and drink beer, they're independent enough to be shown nude. I don't know. But I do find this element/influence of the art deco style to be particularly fascinating.

Art deco came to a screeching halt as style de rigeur during the Great Depression. It was considered inappropriately ostentatious, gaudy and gauche to have all those images and icons of prosperity, when people were lining up around the block to get food stamps. You can see their point, can't you. But I'm sure glad that the places like Napier maintained this style and we get to go and look at it. As a beautiful little city, Napier is a stand out, and its because of this almost institutionalised art deco-ness.

Back to Poirot. And the pervasive presence of the art deco style is one of the things that makes watching Agatha Christie's Poirot such a treat. The attention to detail in everything on this show (over 19 years in the running) is amazing. Everything from Poirot's spats (these are things he wears on his shoes, and do not refer to a small altercation or something a cat does if she's cross with you) to his cutlery is carefully considered. Although there's nary a bronzed naked lady juggling illuminated globes to be seen. Not Poirot's style. Right?

What's In and Why

2010-05-11T11:28:00.004+10:00

G'day and welcome to blog #38. We're back in Auckland after a weekend trip to Gisborne. As part of my new stay-a-while, cafe-enjoying, people-watching mode, I've found myself reading more magazines than usual in the last few weeks. Cafes seem to stockpile them. What's caught my eye has been the fashion pieces that appear in almost every magazine except Mechanics Weekly. Many of these pieces have a focus on what's in - the current fashion trends. This intrigues me.

What's In (and how can we know for sure?). Here's three recent examples:

Military. Apparently, clothing that is military inspired is in. These are items that have things like shoulder detailing (like epaulets), brass buttons and other detailing (like decorative studs), and combat boots. I read about this trend before leaving Australia, so when I came across this military-inspired jacket recently, I knew a photo opportunity had magically appeared. Note skeptical look on my dial.
Clogs. This is an item of footwear made primarily out of wood. This gives you an indication of how flexible it is, and how much support it may provide to one's foot. Clogs are in because, I read, Karl Lagerfield (the "kaiser") used them in one of his recent runway shows. The fashion editor where I read this did make an amusing comment which was along the lines of: if I couldn't wear them when I was 14, I wont be trying them again now. Touche. Plus, clogs don't look good with orthopedic inserts.

Chunky knitwear. "Artisan" knitwear is the go, with chunky, fluffy and hybrid wools being used to create cardigans, sweaters and dresses that previously were the sole domain of cottage industries and sold at weekend markets along with organic capsicum and second hand cutlery. Some of the items illustrating this piece were indeed like works of art. And that's probably where they should be displayed - on a wall somewhere, not on somebody's body. Especially if that person is shorter than 6ft3 and weighs more than 40kgs.

The thing that trips me up about these fashion trends is, well, a two things actually:

who decides this stuff? I've seen The Devil Wears Prada and everything, and I still don't get who determines fashion trends, or more precisely, why they get to decide them. Yes, I heard the monologue that Meryl Streep delivers to the hapless Anne Hathaway about where a fashion trend starts (which in short is: on some designer's runway, which other designers then copy, which fake-artists with cheaper price tags then copy, then into some bargain bin where Anne's character Andy* digs it out of. *[Insert own name here if a bargain shopper]). Ah, so our fashion reality is determined by the fantasy world that is a haute couture fashion show. Good to know.

why do we buy it? Where is our sense of personal style, our awareness of what suits us (regardless of what's being touted as being 'in'), our own internal style-meister? Pumpkin skirts for example should be worn by reed thin girls who are 11ft tall. This means that only the blue-skinned cast of Avatar should even consider wearing them. And as for chunky handcrafted-looking knitwear? Sheesh. If you aren't a fisherman on the Irish Sea, it's hard to pull off and look like anything other than the Michelin man. Bulky sweaters add, well, bulk. And as for clogs, and military-inspired clothing and [insert whatever fashion trend some magazine is saying is in here] ..... it's easy to see how some women can get confused and end up looking like a mish-mash of all manner of fashion trends. Where's YOU in all this?

French style. An article in one of the many magazines I've been reading lately about Ines de la Fressange (French model and long-term muse of the aforementioned kaiser of fashion) caught my attention. She was asked about French style:

"In England, people follow fashion much more than in France. I imagine Bridget Jones working in an office and dying to go and buy a pair of shoes at lunchtime, you know. French women have a kind of arrogance. It's 'I ignore fashion. I do my own thing'".

I don't see it as arrogance. I see it more as an internal certitude, a level of self assurance that no amount of pressure and attention from the fashion media can shake. Sure, they may be criticised (got a lesson in that myself recently, so know how that feels). But even more importantly: they know themselves and are true to that. A fashion-leaning version of "to thine own self be true", I suppose. Ah, the bard. Shakespeare said all the stuff that was really worth saying. Right?

NZ TV

2010-05-07T06:04:00.007+10:00

Well, we're up to blog #37 and it's great to have you with us! This week I had the extraordinary experience of being on New Zealand's premier early morning TV show. They've called it Breakfast - where do they come up with these names? (the show after it is called Good Morning - I mean, go figure).

How did this happen? Well, great question! It started with me having this idea land in my brain -- you're going to New Zealand anyway, why don't you make "the most" of the trip and see if you can get any media interest in the 12 Month Shopping Challenge? That was kinda how the thought formed. I've chatted a little bit to one media person in Australia who said the story was interesting... This is great feedback, btw, because as a consumer of the media, it's hard to know how they determine what's interesting. And what's not. It seemed conceivable that my year of no clothes shopping may be either.

Press. Release. So I crafted a press release, of sorts. I found a template of a press.release on the internet and basically followed it, like a formula. Inserted a few silly sentences, all based loosely on the truth. I then did a google search of New Zealand media. Very high tech. I typed in terms like "New Zealand television" and "New Zealand radio". Gosh, it was thrilling stuff. I sent the press.release off to a few people with a short email note. I had no idea what the response would be. No. Idea.

Ring ring. The next day, the day before we were to leave Australia, I was at the hairdressers, as one does... I'd just finished being massaged and rinsed off (hair, people, my hair we're talking about) when my mobile phone rang. Dripping and slightly concerned about electrocution, I answered the phone and it was a producer from NZ TV's Breakfast show. They thought it was a fabulously interesting story. I may have added in the "fabulously" later. Long story short (or it is it too late for that?), they scheduled me to come on the show. Who'd've thunk it? I was really thrilled. And surprised. And the shoulders of my shirt were really wet.

Pre-Interview. Couple days before I was due to go on, someone from the show did a pre-interview with me and that's when I told them about the home footage I had taken of my walk in robe. You know, the thing that used to be a bedroom, where all my clothes pay rent to live there. That sparked their attention, so I sent it through to them. Little did I know how much that footage would appear in the final 7 minutes that went on screen. And if I'd known, I don't know if I would've shared it with them. But then, I probably wouldn't have gotten the 7 minutes then. Speaking of the 7 minutes, Lord Jeffery Archer got 7 minutes the day before in an interview on the same show; all the other segments were about 3 or 4 minutes. I don't know why this amused me so much. Maybe it's because Lord Jeffrey is such a sophisticated and authoritative sounding man (the private school system (which they call the public school system, don't they?) in England will do that to a person - 12 year olds come out of their system sounding like that, don't they?). And my topic just seemed so .... light-weight... in comparison. Not that Lord Jeffrey spoke of anything particularly weighty. But you should've seen the shots of the view from his house (or house-sized apartment)! The Thames, glittering and fresh as it always is. Big Ben, donging away. Sheesh.

My scheduled day, Monday, was moved to the Wednesday. Something to do with the male presenter of Breakfast, Paul Henry, being the in the UK to cover some political thing. Elections, I think they said.

The Day Arrives. Wednesday May 5 arrived. As we all knew it would. Days are like that - predictable. They come. They go. So, after something of a fitful sleep, up at 5.30am, dressed and made up, into the corporate taxi, across the Sydney Harbour lookalike (but only smaller) bridge. Good thing Dan came with me, we had a lot of laughs and it kept me relaxed. There was some mix up with the corporate taxi and we had to pay the fare -- Dan reckoned that when I got on-air, it should be the first thing I mentioned. Funny!

The white room. We spent a quality 20 minutes in a white room, I think they reserve the proper Green Room for the VIP guests, politicians, celebrities, CEOs and suchlike. Ours was most definitely not green. But we did get tea and coffee in a very functioning flask and I got to see how they were positioning my segment in its lead up. They like to tease a bit on this show, all in good humour and I must say, the presenters on this show are love-ee-lee.... but I did start to feel a bit nervous. Like I might be made out to be Imelda Marcos without the subjects and political tax evasion scandal.

My 7 minutes. Pippa and Jack were very friendly, although I suspect that Jack's appreciation for this particular topic was at a lower ebb than Pippas. Gotta tell ya, my respect for TV presenters of those kinds of shows has gone up - the sheer volume of various topics they need to get across in one morning is staggering. And to be even vaguely conversant with each guest, let alone well informed, takes some skill and attention. So I tip my hat to them. Not that I imagine either of them will read this blog. Pippa made the interview so easy - very conversational. Like it was "just us". Yes, let's forget however many hundreds of thousands of people are watching. And the seven minutes zoomed by before I had a chance to say "designer consignment sale". Now, if Andy Warhol is right, does that mean I'm "half done"?

Check it out. You can check out the segment by visiting: http://www.myyearwithoutclothesshopping.com/. This is also where we have put up some info about the Membership Club we are starting.... Love to hear your thoughts on the segment.... not everyday a girl gets to have her innermost, er, things available for the world to see. Right?

Going In

2010-05-04T09:54:00.006+10:00

Hello and welcome to blog #36. On the weekend, we were out and about in Auckland, gorgeous place that it is. Cafes, boutiques, groovy bars with attractive people sitting outside, sunshine, families, mostly well behaved children - this place has a lot to offer.

One of the things we did was visit the Devonport Craft Market. This was the girly weekend activity; the blokey activity was going to see the Warriors play the Raiders (this is Rugby League football for those of you tuning in from countries that do not have this particular breed of sport). The game was played at the "wait 10 minutes and the weather will change" Smart Stadium - sunnies on, sunnies off; umbrella down, umbrella up, gloves on, gloves off... and that was just the players!

Beautiful! Unique! Creative! Those markets, tell ya... they were filled with people who had created such innovative things for sale! One woman had created bowls and ashtrays out of 45 and 78 LPs (if you were born after 1978, you probably wont know what these are - these are what music used to be played on before tapes and CDs -- large black disks that melt very well to form bowls and ashtrays, as it turns out). She had created bags for these bowls and ashtrays out of their album covers. Another were chalkboards painted in primary colours and cut in animal shapes - I was very tempted by the blue cat. Another was a Swedish woman who had created the most beautiful hairclips and brooches out of feathers, kind of like mini fascinators. Rings made out of buttons, brooches made out of zippers turned into flowers, tea cups turned into bird feeders, beaded/elasticised bookmarks - it was a feast for the senses! Such creativity and such beautiful things.

Mine? Not mine? Yours? And you know what I noticed? I enjoyed looking, a few items even tempted me (my visa finger was itching in places, although the stalls only took cash, so maybe it was my cash finger itching). But I wasn't truly ruly deeply messily tested to buy anything. I was able to appreciate these beautiful unique things, without wanting to purchase them and take them home. The voice that accompanies that insistent chant of "I must have it!" is always either husky and slightly menacing (combined with a maniacal laugh - think of any villain in the Batman series) or else it's like the seagulls in the Pixar film Finding Nemo - and their chants of "mine! mine! mine!" Fortunately, those voices were silent on this craft shopping expedition. My medical team will be so relieved.

Streeeetch it baby. I took this as a good sign that I might be ready to enter a real store selling real things that are off my list to purchase... didn't think I would leap straight into a clothing store, but I did saunter into quite a few accessory stores. One had the above brooches made out of Scrabble tiles. I'm not sure that two of those "words" would be acceptable if a proper game were being played (guess which two I'm thinking of!), but yet another example of creating a beautiful piece of wearable art out of an everyday, if not incongruous, item.

Feel the burn? In our travels around the northlands here in Aotearoa, we've stopped in a few funky little burgs. Many of these have shoe and clothing boutiques in them... I've started to stop and look in the windows, or peer in through the open doors at their stock. More appreciating, less the need to consume. And you know what else? I've noticed that my aperture for appreciation is widening on this trip, to include not only the groovy stuff that downtown has, but the natural surroundings as well. Instead of walking through the town centre, let's walk down by the river and observe the ducks. They can be quite aggressive, you know.

Progress, you say? This feels like (more) progress for me, however insane it may seem to somebody else (I get to define the terms of my own sanity, at least in the small territory that is this blog!). This is part of my "clothing/shoe stores are not the enemy" mindset that I am cultivating. Because the enemy is not without, it is almost always within. As much as I'd love that not to be true, and not only because someone very moral and noble said it but because it's the name of a Star Trek episode, I know that it is true. Right?

In other news, Pippa from NZTV One's Breakfast show is interviewing me tomorrow morning just before 8am... the ticker tape at the bottom of the show this morning advertising tomorrows show said "a real shopaholic". I'm guessing that's referring to me. Right?

Near Misses and Misplaced Fear

2010-04-30T06:03:00.004+10:00

Hello, g'day and kia ora on a crisp autumn morning here in Auckland. We are up to blog #35 and today I'd like to share what's happened this week on the shopping challenge. Being away from home has a way of helping shift your perspective and see things differently. There's something about the surroundings being different that somehow gives you a new lens to look through, isn't there?

This week I had an insight about the shopping challenge, and more specifically, the emotional aspects of it. And I had a near miss, a narrow escape - my visa finger was itching and I was seconds away from breaking the challenge. In backwards order:

Near Misses. No, this is not a new clothing store for tween girls. It's an experience I had yesterday in downtown Auckland. Now, I should tell you that I absolutely love the Maori Koru symbol - it is beautiful and also meaningful (beginning of life). Knowing I can't take home clothing, shoes, accessories (mainly because I can't buy them), we've been checking out souvenir shops so we can take back a memento of this trip for the house. I saw a gorgeous glass Koru in a window yesterday and sauntered into the store to check it out. Lo and behold, if this shop didn't also sell (gasp) jewellery in this same design. They had this stunning Koru glass pendant in my orange tones, at a reasonable price. I put it on and checked myself out in the mirror.

Tell ya, I entered into a temporary state of amnesia at that moment; it was like I had completely unremembered that I was on this challenge. My thoughts were something like: oh isn't this gorgeous, wont it go with heaps of things, it'll be a great reminder of this trip, how unique and stunning it is, and oh it's only $39.99 which is about $12.50 with the exchange rate taken into account. Oooh, I love it! (not only did my memory suffer a loss but clearly my mathematical ability suffered a blow during this time period).

It was like I was in the grip of a powerful force that rendered my rational capacity to think clearly a quivering mass of jelly. Now, we've all had a laugh at Isla Fisher in Confessions of a Shopaholic - cute film! But when she describes the narcotic effect that shopping has on her parasympathetic nervous system (well, she doesn't use those words, but that's what she's talking about), I confess I could relate to it. I was in a semi-hypnotic state, induced by a shiny glass object about 3 cm square.

Somehow I snapped myself out of it, and got myself outa that shop, trailing words over my shoulder..... I'll think about it... I may be back....

A lucky miss. (which is probably how the girl who got a hug from Justin Beiber felt)

Misplaced Fear. We were wandering around Takapuna the other day (one of the few places in NZ with a Maori name that I can confidently pronounce without fear the locals with laugh politely at my inept pronunciation). When we'd driven through Takapuna, I'd seen a number of clothing, shoe and accessory stores that looked worth looking in. If I wasn't on the challenge, naturally. I found myself saying - no, I will not go into those stores! I must stay away from them! That's the only way I can avoid temptation! When I examined this internal dialogue a little, I noticed something I'd not recognised before. Which is that I've been harbouring a secret fear of these stores. Like they're the enemy somehow. That I will feel so drawn to their contents that I will be unable to resist should I cross their threshold. This seems slightly nuts to me, now that I've recognised it and thought about it. These stores may be alluring, but they don't have the power to bewitch unless I give them that influence.

Easy does it.... So, having that realisation, that I don't have to literally avert my eyes as I walk past a store displaying attractive clothing, shoes or accessories, is a Good Thing, right? What I need to be aware of is that this doesn't mean I'm ready to wander into them and pluck inviting items off the racks, dash into the dressing room and try them all on, then with a sanguine toss of the head, walk out of the store purchase-less, without nary a qualm or backwards glance. Such a course of action strikes me as being unnecessarily sadomasochistic (necessary sadomasochism is another matter entirely). So, I'm going easy. I'm stopping to look in the windows, even casting an eye on the racks outside the stores. Such as the shoes in the shot above - that photo take in Takapuna on Tuesday.

This feels like progress to me. Not necessarily progress you'd notice, but it's internal progress. Progress I can feel. And that's got to be a good thing. Right?

In other news, Estelle from Classic Hits FM (a national radio station here in NZ) is interviewing me this afternoon on her drive time show. We're going to have a chat and a laugh (possibly on me) about my year without clothes shopping. Then Estelle's going to invite listeners to call in and discuss things they've given up (or tried to) for 12 months. Sounds like a lot of fun. Right?

Auckland: City of Sales

2010-04-26T17:39:00.004+10:00

Kia Ora, which is hello in the Maori language. How international is that? Welcome to post #34, coming to you from Auckland, the "city of sails", or as I'm referring to it, the city of "sales". Same thing, right?

Why I'm worried. I'm worried, people. And it's because:

last year, most of my clothing (and accessory and shoe) shopping was done while we were travelling overseas. I estimate I spent at least $3500, maybe more, on clothes, shoes & accessories while travelling overseas. I love shopping in the USA - so much choice in styles and sizing (+ sizing options for people with short limbs like me), the quality is very good and the pricing is also good. I did most of my shopping in California (March), Dallas (August) and San Francisco (November). It was this last trip which I've now realised tipped me into pausing for reflection and wondering if it wasn't time to take a breather on all this shopping.

this is the first trip we've had overseas since starting this challenge on December 15, 2009. I am committed to this challenge, for sure. And, I know how strong entrenched thought and behaviour patterns can be to break. Good for me (and my bank balance and my personal code of finishing what I start) that I know this -- I know have this pattern of buying stuff when I'm travelling overseas. The internal dialogue goes something like: "hey I'm overseas -- what a great opportunity to buy unique stuff I can't find at home! It will be such a great reminder of my trip! Remember when I found these shoes in Shanghai? Remember how I happened upon that handbag in Hawaii? Oh, and what about nearly getting thrown out of Century 21 in New York City for trying on this shirt in the winter coat section because I wouldn't stand "on line" for 25 minutes to go into the changing room?" You get the picture. And that internal dialogue lady - she's real convincing.

New Zealand has great clothes, accessory and shoe shopping. Yeah, baby, this is some of the best shopping I've encountered. There seems to be a preponderance of wool available in this country which seems to have influenced the fabrics you find things in and has had a flow-on quality effect. There's ticks in the innovative and quality boxes, although "dirt cheap" doesn't score particularly well. Guess the answer there goes something like: you get what you pay for, right? The photograph above was taken just this afternoon at a gorgeous store on Auckland's north shore. You'll be pleased to know that I only paused briefly to take the photograph then I moved myself along quick smart. No lingering to look at the tantalising window display. Nosiree. Even with that bloody sandwich board out there telling all the world they had a sale on.

The Melbourne Storm were framed. Ok, I just made that up, but some people are worrying about that, if the humongous number of comments being made at the moment about this salary-cap-breaching, scandal-attracting, free-powerboat-accepting team are anything to go by.

See my problem?! I have succeeded (well, mostly) on the challenge so far by using avoidance as my primary strategy. Stay Away From The Shops! It's a good strategy. It works. When you're on holiday, particularly in a chic urban city like Auckland (more on that in a sec - is this city gorgeous or what?), avoiding the shops is kinda awkward. Today we went into a shopping centre (to buy riveting items like a camera battery and gel inner soles -- I'll stop there in case you fall asleep halfway through my next shopping item. It was nail clippers. Ha! Told ya anyway... Still awake?). I passed a number of alluring stores with clothes, accessories and shoes in them. Didn't go in a single one. How's that for resolve?

And the consolation prize is... what I have done instead of lurking in clothes, shoes and accessory stores is visit homewares, gift-y type and stationery stores. Today I visited Smiggle, Isabel Harris, Living & Giving and Red Current. All kinda funky in their own way and I wasn't tempted by clothes or shoes in any of them. Mainly because those stores don't sell clothing and shoes.

What's in a name? Although the names are an intrigue, aren't they? One presumes that Isabel Harris is a real living breathing person who inspired/created that enterprise, so that one is at least straightforward. Living & Giving could be a sub-branch of the Red Cross or an assisted living facility for active seniors with a community outreach program. Red Current could be the name of an action film starring JCVD or perhaps some kind of hybrid dried fruit. And Smiggle is just a made up name, surely? A cross between a smurf and a wiggle (or Wiggle), maybe? A more eclectic group of names, for a similar kind of shop you'd be hard pressed to find, I reckon.

What's my plan? Good question. What is my plan? Since avoidance is working so well for me, I'm going to try to stick to that. Auckland has so many funky areas in it that are worth visiting, and not all of them have boutiques in them. Apart from parlaying my shopping interest from clothes & shoe shops into gifts/homewares & stationery stores, I might also focus on the joy and experience of just being here. Soak in the atmosphere, appreciate my surroundings. Instead of downing my last drop of chai latte and heading into the stores, I'll linger a while and people watch at leisure.

Sounds like a good plan. Right?

Pack it baby!

2010-04-22T11:39:00.008+10:00

Here we are post #33. I've taken a short break from my headless chicken impersonation (which I am quite good at) to write this post. We leave on Saturday for a month in New Zealand, and between now and then there seems to be an endless number of tasks to complete.

Listing! And not to the left... Fortunately, have pen and pad, will create list. List thus created, I am proceeding to complete it and tick things off it. Thus saving sanity and not driving household completely bonkers. This is a plus, I have found.

Some people are list makers, and some aren't. Of the list makers, some even read their lists. Others have been known to find their lists crumpled at the bottom of their handbag months later, with obscure items on it that they can no longer fully comprehend like green suit, butter, scan pan, hot chicken, 4pm Candy Tues. No doubt, it meant something at the time of writing.

I love my list and am smugly able to report that I am deep into the third item (of six) with this-ee-here writing which you are now reading.

Pack me! I've always enjoyed packing more than unpacking. I'm not alone there... an extensive 3 minute Google search reveals that Ashton Kutcher also enjoys packing. Having travelled a great deal, and therefore packed many times, I have made many fine mistakes. The biggest one is packing with these three words in mind: "just in case". When you pack for "just in case" you end up taking all kinds of unnecessary items. Like a rain slicker to go to places when the last known rainfall was before movies went colour. Or a swimsuit to visit Canada at Christmas (well, there might be a spa somewhere! I'm sure that's what I must have been thinking at the time).

The Expanding Bag. The other big mistake I've made when travelling is purchase large and awkward shaped items to take back home. For years, I carried an Extra Bag with me to pack clothing into while the suitcase was co-opted into housing wooden African figurines, chinese blue pottery, Thai stone statuettes and other such items for the trip home. The most awkward thing I ever purchased was two dinner sets in San Francisco. One was (well, still is) a giraffe pattern and the other is more of a tiger pattern. They were very well priced and I knew I would never be able to find them in Australia (and if I do, I will have to commit hare kari with a wet noodle in self-flagellation). We had also purchased a full set of suitcases on this same trip (yes yes, they were (are) in animal print -- in fact, the second-to-largest suitcase is pictured above). I briefly toyed with the idea of packing the dinner sets up in clothing, etc, and carting them home with us in the new suitcases. Sanity returned thereafter (can you imagine what our check in luggage would have looked like, let alone weighed? We'd have looked like we were fleeing for our lives with our entire earthly possessions on a luggage trolley, stacked halfway to the ceiling. And our excess baggage fees would have been, well, excessive indeed). We ended up taking the dinner sets to a FedEx who shipped them home for us. Cost us twice what the actual dinner sets did, but hey! Makes a great story and every time I use those plates (which is every day), I remember the sacrifices that were required to bring them home. Ahhhhhh.

So, just how is it done? I have learned that a packing chart really helps. When I worked for an international consulting firm and travelled every week to new and exotic destinations, like Perth and Adelaide, I would create a specific packing chart for each trip. These trips usually lasted 5 days, although sometimes I'd be away from home for a fortnight.

This chart had on it what I was going to wear every day (including travel days). It helped because it meant I did not have to remember what combo's I'd dreamt up when getting ready at the obscenely early hours we would start work. And I also had to take less clothes, because I had pre-thought say 5 unique outfit combinations that could be created from say 1 suit, 1 jacket and 2 pairs of dress pants (with say 2 pair of shoes, various tops (usually knit t-shirt types) + a range of accessories. oh, and underwear - most important to remember to pack that. And usually I would also be packing flamenco gear as well. I have studied flamenco in many fine cities).

Sans packing chart? I don't do that anymore, one reason being that my trips are never mostly work ones. They are almost always mostly 'leisure'/fun trips whose purpose is to add to my personal happiness, with a bit of work thrown in. The work I do now has also changed, and I am bringing more of "me" into it (vs. when I worked for a big company and I was mostly "them" -- I had a receptionist once call my client from the front desk and say "Deloitte is here". It was me). This means that when I do dress for work now, it's much more creative than how I previously dressed professionally. Thus blurring the lines between business and leisure clothing.

Pas - avec l'embalage graphique! Avec une difference! I still use a packing chart, but it's different to the one I used in my old consulting days -- I use it only in the preparation stages. As a guide to make sure I pack enough, but not too much. The packing chart I use is from one of my image books and it sure is helpful when I'm pondering what to take and what to leave at home.

We're embarking on a long trip to a cold climate (important parameters to understand when the packing commences). Here is what I've been recommended to pack for such a trip:

5 jackets. Check! A coat (animal print trench) + a jacket (orange suede) + a windbreaker (orange padded) + soft jacket (turquoise brushed cotton jean-jacket style) + cardigan (animal print Gerry Weber wool number I try to wear as much as possible to justify the exorbitant price I paid for it)
6 bottoms. Check! Skirts are suggested, but I'm not taking any. Mainly because I only own 3 and none of them are winter ones. So, am taking 4 pair of jeans (dark 'dress' jeans + black Lucky jeans + pre-loved Dallas designer pair with shorter hem for wearing with flat shoes + boot cut pair from Target which fit like a glove and are semi-favourites despite costing less than all the others except the consignment pair). And 2 pair of lounging-about-the-house style pants
12 tops. Check! Range of long-sleeve t-shirty knits (great for layering, when in/out of heated indoors and chillier/windier outdoors), couple of turtlenecks, one wool wrap top, one cardi-style drapey thing, a few camis (again the layering)
1 dress. Nope. wont be taking. Own 5 dresses, none of which are winter weight
4 pair of shoes. Ha! I am taking only 3 (that's three, trois, tre, tri, tres, drie, kolme) pair. My enthusiasm for this may be slightly out of proportion to the task at hand, but it's great to know I can travel with Less Than Recommended items. Slippers don't count as shoes, do they?
4 scarves. Check! Well, I'm taking about double that, but many of them are smaller ones. So that don't count, right? And they don't take up much space, so it doubly doesn't count, right?
2 bags. This is apart from the ones all this stuff is going into, I presume. Am guessing the recommendation is to take a bag appropriate for going out to dinner (at somewhere other than the local outdoor food bazaar) if one is travelling with a backpack as one's day bag. I'm not sure if I'll take two bags or not...
2 belts. Check! Since I'm wearing one on the plane, I am officially only packing 2.
Extras such as a jersey (she doesn't mean the the British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, surely?), a tracksuit (yiyck, but I have packed equally comfortable wear that feels like a tracksuit but does not look like one), a sweatshirt (all my sweating will be done in something that does not resemble a sweatshirt) and lingerie. Personally, I do not consider lingerie to be "extras", they've always been essential items for me. So Check! on that front, too

All of this, plus a few extras like some wool wash, small packet of pegs (amazing how useful they can be, including when hanging up wet clothing), and a small hairdryer should all fit into my mid-size bag. You can see the beginnings of my packing effort in the photograph above, taken just this morning.

On a related note, I am sure looking forward to some real Autumn weather. Not this wishy-washy, wimpy, wussy Autumn weather that we get in Queensland (sorry, Queensland, but it's true. You know it is. (I'm talking to a State now....)). Crisp mornings, sunny days... not to mention the forecasted heavy rain, dense fog and high winds. Hmmm. Might be a good thing I'm not packing skirts after all. Right?

Mix N Match

2010-04-19T15:25:00.004+10:00

Hello and welcome to blog #32. I'm 5 days away from leaving on a month-long trip to New Zealand and so my mind has wandered to packing and putting outfits together. I'll post later this week on the joy and pain of packing - there's something to look forward to, huh? Today I'll focus on the idea of mixing and matching clothing to form outfits.

Sets. I had a friend in Sydney many years ago who was a "set" dresser. And by that, I'm not referring to her occupation. She had outfit sets (this top with those pants; this skirt with that blouse; and so on). And she never wore those items of clothing in any other way than those pre-set combinations. If Top A and Bottom A were a "set", then Top A was never torn asunder from that set and worn with say Bottom B. Let alone Bottom C, D, or E, yikes abroad. Nosiree. Whilst one part of my brain loved the tidiness and symmetry of this system, another part of me resisted the rigidness that it imposed on her wardrobe. Why, you may ask, did she have such an inelastic approach to combining her clothing?

Fear. I'm not talking the kind of fear that has you waking up in a cold sweat at 4am. This is a smaller scale fear, which could possibly be downgraded to a general uncertainty, anxiety or doubt. My friend was quite simply frightened of making a mistake and looking like the girl that Mark Twain had in mind when he quipped "she looked like her clothes were thrown on with a pitchfork". It was safer to keep her sets together. Even though she would never come up with a colourful, creative or even stylishly volcanic ensemble, she would also never come up with a mismatched one either. Better safe than sorry was her sartorial slogan.

Mix'n'matchin' packin'. When it comes to packing, mix'n'match comes into its own. The only time you don't have to worry about mix'n'matching when packin' is when you are holidaying at a nudist resort or you have a personal valet to lug your luggage in and out of taxis, on and off airport conveyor belts, and up and down hotel lifts (not to mention to offer a full unpack, repack, laundering and pressing service). Even for the shortest trip, it makes sense to coordinate your clothing so that you have the most number of outfit possibilities from the smallest number of clothing items. I have a packing chart that I found somewhere (in one of the 3 shelves of image/clothing books that I have in my library, which resides very hoity toitily in the garage). And it outlines the number of items of clothing (and which specific ones) you need for

a leisure trip of 1 - 3 days, or 1 - 3 weeks
a business trip of 1 - 3 days, or 1 - 3 weeks
a leisure/business combo trip of 1 - 3 days, or 1 - 3 weeks

It's very handy, and I have pulled it out to help me pull together what I am packing for New Zealand... but more on that later this week.

Combination City. One of the main reasons for learning to mix'n'match what you already have in your wardrobe is to increase the number of outfit choices you have. You know, how to have 108 outfits out of 4 items of clothing, that kind of thing. I don't think it is mathematically possible to come up with 108 different outfit combinations out of just 4 items of clothing, but I'm willing to be proved wrong. To me, this is one of the great joys of getting dressed -- what new combinations can I pull together? What new way can I create of wearing this item of clothing? What can I pair these pants, that jacket, that top with, that it's never been paired with before? It can make you discover an item of clothing anew -- a pair of trousers you thought you had the number on can look quite different - fresh - worn with a new top or jacket (or top/jacket combo).

Jeans Illustrated. I pulled the combinations you see in the image accompanying this blog (top right) posting together myself. It roughly represents the direction I am taking to packing for this New Zealand trip -- a truncated version for sure (there are more jeans, tops, scarves and jackets coming with me, although not more shoes) -- but that's pretty much the direction I'm headed in. I had such fun pulling that chart together (doncha just love Google Images?). It shows how one pair of jeans can be used as a 'base' and a host of 'top' options can be used to create new and stylish outfits every day.

Wardrobe review. When I was an image consultant (for about 15 minutes in 1999 in Sydney), one of the things I particularly loved to do (and seemed to have some aptitude for) were wardrobe reviews. This was when you enter someones home, at their invitation and for money, and rifle through their closet to examine their clothing. Often the point of this exercise was three-fold (if you leave out Embarrassing The Client) which was:

to chuck out stuff that has no business being there. These are items of clothing that are no longer 'paying the rent' and need to go bye-byes
to see what could be revitalised by either revamping it, repairing it or re-pairing it with other items (in the wardrobe, or soon to be purchased)
to identify gaps that need to be filled, the end result of which is a shopping list of clothing items

It was amazing to me how few combinations people were coming up with, and wearing, from their stock of clothing. Many clients could literally double or triple the number of outfits they could access, just by combining items that previously had never been put together. Clever, huh?

If you aren't combining your outfits and are something of a "set" dresser, you might want to have another look at all that you have. You may have some hidden gems of outfit combinations hiding in there, amongst all the familiar items. And wouldn't that be something to discover - new worlds of options in your closet, right now. Not only could you find some exciting and stylish combo's that make you look good, but they'll make you feel good, too. And that's what shopping your closet is all about. Right?

Four Months!

2010-04-15T10:37:00.005+10:00

Greetings! It is a gorgeous autumn day here in Queensland. And today is officially the 4 month mark of the challenge. Howzat - one third of the way through, and only a few scratches and bruises as markers of the journey thus far!

This is blog #31 and that really is me (left) inside my closet. That photo was taken yesterday by Jules who had me climb inside my hanging space (which as you can see is double decker) and attempt to look nifty. I felt like a bit of a goose doing it but it does illustrate the whole Woman Vs Clothing (who cares about Man Vs Wild when there are silk shirts and tailored jackets to be considered??!) thing quite well, don't you reckon?

I've had people ask me if I feel bad that I own so much clothing. I feel great! Some people collect tea spoons, or miniatures of the worlds great iconic structures, or men, or photographs, or memories, or bad habits. I have collected clothing. And in general, I have enjoyed it immensely! Stopping to take stock of where this collecting was taking me has also been an important part of the journey. Which brings us full circle to the focus of today's post.

Review! What I'd like to do today, is a review of the past four months as chronicled by this blog. It seems appropriate to place a marker in time, since a lot of water has passed under the blogging bridge in the last 16 weeks. Blogging is a funny ole business, and the "blososphere" is full of very interesting (and some shady) characters). I still have no particular idea if this blog is going to "take" me anywhere, beyond the emotional expression that it provides twice a week. Which, since you've asked, is valuable in and of itself.

In the hot spot. Blogs can be quite powerful. Julie (from the movie Julie & Julia) proved that. Someone else doing fabulous things is Annabel Candy, a friend here on the Sunshine Coast. Her blogging has just won her a free trip to Shanghai, courtesy of Coca Cola. To read that fabulous story, and receive the treat of her blog writing on a regular basis, you can check her out here (hi Annabel!) So, inspired by Annabel, plus my own desire for completion, I am going to continue blogging away here and hope that you continue to read me. At least some of the time.

So, standing here by the side of the road with the signpost above us saying Four Months Along, where exactly have we come from?

Month One. I really had no idea what I was doing. I felt slightly terrorised and amazed that I'd made this seemingly massive decision to not do something that I immensely enjoyed and am, in fact, quite good at. My head knew that it was a good idea -- financially it was a no brainer. Emotionally and psychologically, I knew that I needed to do this challenge, although I wasn't quite sure why (and am only marginally clearer now, four months along). I blogged about the Gruen Transfer, the nature of wanting, what I bought overseas last year, leading a creative life (Mafia Stew), that hotdinger of a post on Rick Rack, why I love animal print so much, and passing observations from a visit to the Sunshine Plaza.

And in case you are wondering, the answer is No, I do not have a particular blogging plan or 'workflow' for my posts. How I'm doing it is like this:

I collect ideas on blog posts that might be interesting... these come from a variety of sources including comments friends make to me, media I'm reading/watching/listening to, an idea that I was going to write about but the post took a different turn, passing comments by strangers on the bus.... that kind of thing. I file these in a Word document and refer to them from time to time. Sometimes I even write about those things and then I get to (haaa) cross them off my list. List crossings off - what joy!
I sit down twice a week and put my fingers on the keyboard and see what comes out. Often I start with one idea in mind about what the post will be about, and it ends up going in a completely different direction. Because this is a personal journey, and a personal blog, and I'm wanting to live more in a consciously creative state, I don't try to manipulate the direction of a post... I let it have its own life. In this way, it's kind of like a mature teenager -- it gets some say, but I don't let it run riot.
I do not offer any endorsement or warranty that the above approach has any merit whatsoever and can bear no responsibility that if you try it, it will work for you. I'm not even sure it's working for me.

Month Two. I got into the swing of it a little more, and felt like I might just be able to stick with this whole blogging thing. We were in the grip of a sweltering summer here in Australia and I spent some quality hours in our front office, sweating and typing. My blog posts in month two were honoured by three 'guest' pieces of content - one from Julie who was living The Torture in Sydney, one from Judy (aka the Diva) who made us laugh, and the final piece which included that dry wit of the Masked Man Greg. I also blogged about the TV show Shopping is My Life, Australia Day and thongs, my new found skill in jewellery making, feeling flat and how shopping is connected with that, and my big 4-bag clean out.

Month Three. Summer had gripped us like a vice and I only mention this again because unrelenting heat like that can have a cumulative effect. You are not only cranky because today is hot, but you have built up crankiness from the entire last week when it was 35+ degrees every day. Like sleep deprivation, heat over-stimulation is not good for you or those close to you (who have to put up with you). We battled through and I visited Sydney and Melbourne for some relief (if not in temperature, then at least in locale). I blogged about temptation, the 3 kinds of shoppers I've observed in malls, International Women's Day, the allure of pre-loved stores, the power of colour, and the TV show Toddlers & Tiaras. And yes, I still hold that 6 year olds should not be wearing more makeup than Dolly Parton.

By this stage of the game, I'd started to see how I could "chunk up" up to posit a viewpoint on topics bigger than just me and my personal experiences and feelings about being on this challenge, and other me-related topics. Sure lots of learned scholars have written thorough, well-researched, in depth and far reaching works on these topics. But that's no reason for me not to expound poorly thought out, shallow, superficial, one-dimensional viewpoints here in this blog, right?

Month Four. We'd seen hints that autumn may be lurking around the edges of our weather patterns, and I'd started to wrap my head around the fact that time does not stand still for any woman, and April 17 could not be avoided forever. Or at all, actually. Turning 30 had not even registered on my radar, but the next decade milestone seemed to be throwing up all kinds of challenges for me to stumble over. How fascinating (yawn). I blogged on those timeless topics such as resisting & avoiding (ways to divert temptation's attention), the nature of desire, travelling and how shopping has been such a theme in mine, the fabulous Kasey Chambers and Lyle Lovett experience, the TV show Damages, and the fashion industry's block & tackle they call this season's "must haves".

So, rodeo lovers, that's the round up of the last 4 months. To those who visit and read regularly - I love you! I may not know who you are, but you're a friend for life. I don't label myself a writer (it just seems too swish a term for what I'm doing), but as a person who writes, to know that someone is reading what you've written is pure gold.

Finding me easily. Oh! Here's something else. I have put up a post on my other website about this 12 month non-shopping personal challenge. If you forget the URL for this blog (which some folks have said is long and they do sometimes forget it), no worries! Just go to www.imlisteningnow.com/blog and under the Topic: Personal 12 month challenge you'll find the link to THIS blog post. Gotta love technology. Right?

Must Have's

2010-04-12T10:53:00.009+10:00

Mornin' pardners and here we are blog #30. I can't quite believe I have written thirty blog postings in the last 4 months, but the facts don't lie sistah. When I'm not writhing in pain about the wisdom of starting and vagaries in succeeding in an online business, I have been reflecting on what I'm writing in this blog. Of which post #30 is appearing live on your screen.

And more specifically, I've been reflecting on what it is that has drawn me to write about the topics I'm writing about. I mean, if I were to write exclusively about my personal experiences of not shopping for clothes for 12 months, the posts would be remarkably similar and be along these lines:

Monday. Did not buy anything today. Feeling Ok about it.
Tuesday. Did not buy anything. Feeling vaguely unfulfilled but can't explain why
Wednesday. Did not buy anything. Was tempted by teal scarf but kept on walking.
Thursday. Did not buy anything. Is anybody out there?
Friday. Did not buy anything. Is it possible to bore oneself to death with one's own writing?

This 12 month challenge is about more than my personal experience of not going clothing shopping for one year. It is about the meaning of clothing and what lies beneath the surface of Not Shopping. It is about why it's even vaguely tempting to consider buying yet another pair of jeans when one has 14 pairs in one's closet already. It is about the role of shopping centres and fashion magazines in creating, or feeding into a pre-existing, sense of want and Never Having Enough. It is about wanting, desire, temptation (and yes, we're still talking about the challenge here - I'm not reviewing Fox's lineup of after-8pm-timeslot reality TV shows). I had a vague feeling when I started it that the Challenge was about more than just my personal experiences and feelings. Like the plastic-bag carrying student in Tiananmen Square in April 1989, this is much bigger than just me. I just hope I'm not shot by a fashion firing squad or charged with "political hooliganism" when the challenge finishes (two of the possible ends the 19 year old student allegedly met after the Tiananmen Square incident).

Fashion Me Senseless. And so today I wanted to talk a little about the fashion industry and its role in leading us to believe that we need More. Every season a new look, or a new twist on an old look, or an old look on a new twist, comes "in". The "latest season looks" fill up more fashion magazine space than you can poke a stick at. These magazine pieces are illustrated by clothing that you can sometimes even recognise -- this is when the shoot is not in an Amazonian rainforest or a Saharan sand dune or the Great Barrier Reef where the clothing is obscured by not only the natural landscape but by "creative" fashion photographic styles. Have you noticed how the clothing in fashion shoots is often impossible to make out? Is she wearing a poncho or is that a palm frond? Is that a silk caftan or is she standing behind a curtain? And why is this being shot underwater? - it's a winter coat piece!! The fashion world clearly has its own rules about the role of photographic clarity. That aside, what's also intriguing is how we are suckered into believing that our wardrobes need overhauling every six months.

You need more. You do. You really do. The role of the fashion industry, through the twin vehicles of the fashion media and merchandising, is to send the message that what you have is not enough -- you need more. I was walking past a store just yesterday that had a display of jeans on it - they were so alluringly laid out, I found my body moving independently of the signals my brain was attempting to send (stop! Move away from the jeans! Veer left! Left, I said!) toward this display. It was like my legs and eyes were colluding and engaged in an autonomous response to the visual enticement that display of jeans offered. Only when normal service was resumed (in the form of my husband taking me by the arm and literally steering me forward) did it occur to me that I had more than enough pairs of jeans at home. (and it was only when I went home to fully test out this theory that "I have enough, I'm sure I do" that I counted up the 14 pair of blue jeans that I already have. Yes, that's right, viewers: 14 pairs (only professional bull riders and sales reps for Levis have more pair of jeans than I do, surely). And that's one small example of the pull of professional merchandising. We haven't even started in on fashion media.

Magazines. I wonder if there's a coincidence that the word magazine is used to denote where ammunition is stored and a publication that is published on a regular schedule? The word magazine is derived from the Arabic word meaning "warehouse", which is what the publication kind are, right? They are a storehouse of data, and fashion magazines in particular are crowded with content on Must Haves. Not must have last month or must have for last week. Must Have's for Now. If you are going to be "bang on trend", it's got to be immediate, right?

I came across this in a magazine recently:

"Boots are the must-have item for the season. But not all of them will do -- tall, to-the-knee boots are the only boots to be seen in this season" Are you kidding me? So if my boots don't come to my knee, I'll look like, what - Jane Fonda from The Electric Horseman (1979)??? This is the threat hanging over us, that unless we are wearing what has been determined as "in season", we'll be (gasp) Out Of Style. Worse than the plague, the pox and pimples put together, being out of style is a serious condition you need to remedy as quickly as possible. And if style is so fickle, it's not something we can just check and forget either, right? You could be stylish one day and dowdy the next -- what a horrible thought! Is it any wonder that we yield so quickly to the not-so-subtle media messages to keep our wardrobes up to date by continual consumption?

Now, remember that this is me talking here - a seriously addicted clothing and shopping addict, right. I like clothes (some I'm just infatuated with, others it is true love). I'm on their side. But it does make me wonder. Is it possible to be up-to-date and yet still be unstylish?

I want it. Or do I? Much has been written by more scholarly thinkers than I about the sheer brute force of wanting. Wanting seems to have the power of kryptonite over us mere mortals. Clive Hamilton's book Affluenza eloquently described this "consumption binge" phenomenon and the toxic effect it is having not only on our finances but the quality of our lives. Fabulous - this gives us something other than worrying about the environment to brood about.

But wait! There is an answer. Maybe. The solution to over-consumerism seems to have at least two parts to it:-

shift your attention away from the messages we are fed, primarily through the media. Stop listening to what's "out there"

turn your attention to what it is your truly want and use your internal voice as your primary source of data. Start listening to what's "in here"

Like day trading on margin, this is simple in theory, but challenging to execute with any consistent success. Walking through a typical shopping centre is an exercise in sensory overload - you are literally bombarded from every angle to consume, or at least look. Maybe those who wish to shop only for pre-agreed items should be issued with blinkers upon entering those consumption-inducing shopping centres.

Rather than be laying out "must have new season" items, complete with stockists details, magazines could do features on how to use your existing gear to create stylish, snazzy, suits-me outfits? Imagine that - a fashion spread where nothing is for sale! Inspiring us to use what we have in new and exciting ways! How innovative! Now, that'd be worth reading. Right?

Damaged Damages

2010-04-07T13:55:00.003+10:00

Welcome to Blog #29, and the first Wednesday after Easter. How did you spend Easter? Ours was bookended by social activities - a picnic on Friday and a rather liquid lunch on Monday (recovery yesterday was on the 6-aspirin scale). In between those culinary and social delights, many quality hours were spent in a supine position on the couch, watching TV series' that I never seem to get to watch when they come on TV. And why is this so? I just never seem to be able to remember when the show is on so I miss crucial plot points and forget who supporting characters are and in general just can't keep up week by week (it's that short attention sp... wait - who's texting me? Ha - it's Tony - they're in Melbourne and.... hang on - what was I saying?). So, watching an entire series in one go works for me. Plus, it's like watching a 10.5hour movie. Sure, there's some repetition to deal with, but in a show like Damages that's actually a good thing. Even with that repetition, we still had to pause it from time to time to review what was going on ("no, that's the sister in law who had the one night stand with the guy who's working for Ted Danson's lawyer. Get it now?").

So, this was how Easter Saturday was spent at our place. Watching a 10.5hour movie in the guise of a television show.

Damaged? One such show is Damages, starring the chameleon like Glenn Close (how can one woman look striking and stunning one moment and frightening and forbidding the next? It can't all be makeup and lighting, surely). I can't watch a movie or TV show without noticing what people are wearing. It's part of what makes the experience fun, right? And was there a lot to feast your eyes on, in the sartorial department, in Damages!

Tiger stripes. Glenn Close, as the litigation lioness Patty Hewes, wears so many striped business shirts I stopped counting them. Sometimes she wore a striped or checked jacket with the striped shirt. Stripe-on-stripe is a seriously ballsy combination, require a degree of confidence that most of us just aren't up to. Glenn as Patty pulled it off, though - it worked for her. She oozes authority, it wafts off her body like smoke off a fire.

Authority on a hanger? A lot has been written about the perception of authority and why (and how) uniforms are necessary in those contexts where authority must be asserted immediately. Not in 6 seconds time. Now. That has to be the reason why judges wear black robes, right? I mean, what other purpose can the wearing of the robe be serving? In Britain, not only the judges wear the black robes, but the barristers do too -- and the horsehair wigs, which are still worn to this day (unchanged from when this attire first came in, in 1660. Those wigs, by the way, can cost over one thousand pounds and weigh nearly as much). A judge could be wearing anything under that robe, right? It's the robe that denotes the authority -- he/she could be wearing board shorts and a singlet under it and have as much authority, because of the robe, as if they were wearing a $4000 suit. That's why what someone wears is linked to how much authority they appear to have. It's all perception, context, smoke and mirrors. So we're told.

Jerry Lewis in a suit. Does this mean that any village idiot can don a $4000 suit and be considered an authority figure? I don't think that's what it means - that's called all sizzle and no steak, and who wants smoke in their eyes without the meat on their fork? But Authority Dressing still has its place, right? Why else do people wear suits on Very Important Occasions, like job interviews, funerals and parole hearings? Is it because we want as much on our side as possible? We want to stack the deck in our favour - we want to impress, confuse death, convince our PO of our rehabilitated state. And a suit helps.

Outback authority. Do you remember how much attention was given when Joanne Lees wore the "cheeky monkey" t-shirt to the first hearing of Peter Falconio's disappearance in Australia's Northern Territory in 2001? In her book, No Turning Back, she talked about how stunned she was at the response to what she was wearing, and how off point it seemed to her (I'm paraphrasing, naturally, although the word "off" did appear in her commentary). Those comments had an impact on her, though - during the trial in 2005, she chose her clothing very carefully - a dark skirt, black high heels and a white business shirt. She wore that same outfit every day of the trial, and called it her "uniform". It was meaningful. Loathsome and hated, but meaningful. She had a ceremony of sorts to get rid of the 'uniform' when the trial ended. Probably not a $4000 outfit then.

Damages meets Bergdorf Goodman. There's a scene early on in Season 1 of Damages where the Rose Byrne character, Ellen the junior associate, is sent by Patty's assistant to Bergdorf Goodmans, the most upmarket department store in New York City. This store is so swanky you practically need a note from the mayor just to get in. If you don't have your nose in the air, a sneer on your dial and a swagger in your step as you wander around the store, they ask you to leave; if you have to look at the price on the label.... oh, ok you get the idea -- it's a pricey joint. Ellen is told to see the BG in-store shopping advisor, who "knows what Patty likes". Cut to the dingy 3-room apartment Ellen shares with hunky doctor-in-training fiance, her arms laden with BG shopping bags - she even has to go back outside to get more bags ("wait, there's more" -- true, that line is really in the show). And these bags are full of clothing "that Patty likes". Putting aside that they didn't show us the best bit (shots of Ellen shopping! Looking at the price tags! Plus, the bottom line -- who paid: Hewes & Associates or did Ellen take out a second mortgage and pick up the tab herself?), and the possible infringements of Ellen's civil liberties by being told what to wear... (what am I talking about again? this sentence has gone on so long, with so many (possibly inappropriate) punctuations, that I'm a bit lost...oh, that's right...) ....what's intriguing about this is that Patty gives a shit and wants to seriously influence what Ellen wears. Why? It's gotta be that authority thing again, right? Look like you know what you're talking about (and are worth a month's rent in the hourly fee we're charging for your time) and you're halfway there. Or 42.97% there, at least.

Guilty! No, wait.... is that a Brooks Brothers? The halo effect is when we judge someone to be 'all good' or 'all bad', based on their physical characteristics. Good looking people are considered to be smart, considerate, capable, etc... because they are attractive. The halo is handed out with the good looks. An extreme version of the halo effect is the eyebrow-raising tidbit of info that handsome men get better results than their ugly male counterparts (one presumes) in criminal and civil cases. Can you believe that? Some say that's why Ted Bundy got away with murder for so long. Girls liked the way he looked and couldn't believe a good lookin' guy like him would do them harm. A cute smile and bell bottoms - an irresistible combo.

Guess that means that Patty was right in sending Ellen to Bergdorfs (we're back to Damages, now. You with me? Just hate it when people's attention span wanders!) Right?

And on a completely unrelated topic. [if you haven't popped in for a while, check out what we're talking about at I'm Listening Now.... intriguing stuff on selective listening, and this week's post is about corporate storytelling and listening. You wont want to miss a gripping minute!]

Kasey and Lyle

2010-04-02T10:48:00.005+10:00

G'day from the first day of four days of public holidays where the shops are closed in an odd sequence (open Fridays, closed Saturday from 2.23pm, closed Sunday until 6pm, open Monday from 11 - 3.15pm). I never quite know how those things are worked out but I reckon it has something to do with a church group.

We are up to blog #28 and I have about half a book's worth of words here on thisahereblogwhatsit. I didn't say they were worthy of being in a bound publication (except perhaps of my own making), but the words are starting to stack up. I guess that is persistent effort for you, if I may grant myself a self-congratulatory glowing moment. Ok, now that's over, onto today's post.

Ok, so what's today about? Well! Last night we went to see Lyle Lovett in concert - that's him in the picture on the right. Lyle is a singer/songwriter from Texas, which I believe is inside the United States - it being somewhat hard to tell as Texas is referred to by true-blue ten-gallon hat wearin' four-generations locals as though it were a country all its own. He is unfortunately still very well known for being married to Julia Roberts for 4 days, although we do not know if they were the shortest or longest days of his life.... Certainly the media frenzy after it would make you wonder if it was worth it. To this day, if you google Lyle Lovett, pictures of him with Julia Roberts come up. ANyway, I digress - public holidays have that affect on me! I love his songwriting - it's country with brains is how I like to think of it. One of my favourite lines from a ballad is "they all sat around in a circle, they were laughin' and all tellin' lies". You can just picture that scene, right?

Kasey. He was supported by Australian Kasey Chambers, pictured above on the left, who has one helluva voice. Kasey was low-tech, just her, her dad, her husband and 3 guitars (yep, one each). She chatted about all kinds of things, in between songs while her husband was tuning his guitar - her childhood on the Nullabor plain, her life with her husband, her being a Carlton supporter and him being a Lions supporter (something about "Fev" came up during that bit). Well she just chatted on very conversationally and laughed about herself and her life and generally seemed like a great gal that you could imagine chatting to at a barbecue.

Lyle was a little different in his stage style. He seemed to have a more rehearsed set of comments in between songs and sets. Even though he's been performing since 1978, he seemed slightly uncomfortable on the stage and punctuated his words with a lot of uhh-uhhs and silences. He did share small things about his life, but they were mostly comments about the tour and the history to songs - nothing personal. When he told us about watching football at home on a Sunday drinking beer, it was an unexpectedly raw moment (plus I found it hard to imagine Lyle Lovett watching football. Or drinking beer. He seems more a poker and scotch kinda guy. Not that I stereotype based on one-dimensional media-driven images one iota, nosiree!)

Style summary. If I had to sum up (please do, I hear you say), I'd say Kasey was casual and Lyle was formal. And here's what is so fascinating for me, and where the relevance to this blog comes in. They were dressed that way! When I was searching for images to accompany this blog piece this morning, I tried to find images that showed them as they were most like they were dressed on stage last night.

Kasey again. Her dad and husband were both wearing jeans and some kind of shirt - they were so non-descript I can't even recall what they were like. I do know her dad had on a white hat - it was the same as Kasey's... one of those ten-gallon style Stetson things with the sides all curled up. Kind of like the sort Napoleon wore, but turned the other way on the head. Kasey herself wore a cute but casual white dress affair with the hat, and some kind of shoes. I didn't even know she had brown hair until I Google Imaged her.

Lyle again. He was wearing a dark suit, white shirt and tie. He could have been there to do our taxes or sign us all up for life insurance. His band of 5 men were all dressed identically. In fact, one of the crew, when they were setting up, was wearing a suit - I noticed him because all the other "roadies" were dressed in the casual attire they are known for (black, shapeless, wash'n'wear), but one guy was up there, doing stuff to microphones and putting down bottles of water and fluffy white towels dressed in a suit. So, Lyle's dress style was very formal, much more so than I would've imagined.

Respect. Does the way we dress have anything to do with the respect or regard or esteem (or whatever you want to call that thing that signifies we care) we hold our surroundings, including the people in those surroundings? I mean, would you say that Lyle had more respect for the stage and his audience than Kasey did, by virtue of the way he chose to present himself (and one imagines, ask his band to present themselves likewise)? For me, I could see no discernible difference in the levels of respect that Kasey and Lyle showed the space or us, the audience - they were both gracious and acknowledging. But different. Definitely different. And I reckon their clothing styles reflected their stage style -- hers being more conversational and casual, his being more faulting and formal.

Messages clothing sends. I do believe that clothes send a message. Clothes are important symbols. In another blog post I might wax lyrical about that some more, because it's an interesting topic. For now, I'll just say that I enjoyed the music, I enjoyed what both artists showed us of themselves, and I was very fascinated by how they 'showed up' on stage. It was a treat. I wish you'd been there. You probably do, too. Right?

Travelling

2010-03-30T14:38:00.004+10:00

Howdie and here we are nearly at the end of March. One month into autumn and we have even had a few days that felt autumny. Not blisteringly hot is what I really mean. We're up to blog #27 so we're making good time, my fellow travellers. Lost, but making good time.

So, what's this picture all about? Well, for those who have travelled to the emerald isle, it's Kylemore Abbey which is located in the north of Ireland. We visited there in 2004 and that is indeed me standing there, pensive-like, gazing upon the glorious abbey. The reason I've included this photo and have titled this posting Travelling is because I'm curious about something. If you are not a shopper, how do you spend the lions share of your time when travelling? My guess is the answer is: looking at things. Like abbeys. And piazzas. And ruins. And long lines of tourists standing in front of you to enter the Louvre.

In the last ten years, we have travelled to these countries/regions/cities. And I have shopped in every single one of them: Japan, China, Korea, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Hawaii, San Francisco, Baltimore, California, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, New York, New Zealand, Toronto (and other parts of eastern Canada), London, Capetown, Dallas, Hobart, Melbourne and Moree. That's a lot of shopping. And such fun too! I love looking at things I have bought in those places and sifting through the photo album in my mind (and on my laptop), reliving the experience of being in that place..... (fade to flashback scenes)

The stationery in Tokyo set up like a grocery store where I bought plastic primary coloured pencil cases out of the "fridge"
the markets in Malaysia where the smells almost overwhelmed us and that was even before we got to the food and spice section
the clothing store in Kowloon where the shop girl abruptly removed an item from my hand, rehung it on the rack and said "you too big" whilst simultaneously turning on her heel with such a haughty air, I was temporarily struck dumb. Thank god I had taken an extra self-esteem pill that day.
the animal print trench I bought in Hawaii - 50% off and a Petite, which is not about girth but height (before you laugh into your sleeve about what I was doing buying a Petite). As I have extra short arms, it meant I wouldn't have to spend an additional $20 - $30 having the sleeves shortened
the zebra print wedges I bought in Baltimore that nearly hobbled me when I wore them on the plane to Toronto and ended up being passed along to a pre-loved store
the earrings I bought in Minneapolis made out of real butterfly wings. No butterflies were harmed in the making of those earrings.
the soft teal silk shirt I bought in London, after carefully weighing up do I need food today, or can I afford to buy this item of clothing instead? Gawd, London is one pricey town.
the sensational square toed chocolate boots I bought in Wellington are the best boots I have ever owned. Thank you New Zulund!

It's also true that in all these places, I did other things apart from shop. Like sleeping. And eating. And sight-seeing. But shopping has always been a part of my way of getting to know a place. Even a window-shopping expedition, sans purchasing anything, can tell you something about a place that visiting its museums, harbours, art galleries and drinking establishments will not.

Going Au Natural. I like visiting urban places, cities, where shopping (or at least shops) are often hard to avoid. I guess for people who prefer to travel to places with, like, natural delights (like mountains that require trekking, and wetlands that require tramping, and lakes that require canoing), then shopping is not something that comes up a lot. There not being too many shops in, say, Base Camp. Lots of dogs, but not a lot of shops (I saw a documentary on it once).

Wake me up when we're done. Even the shops in big cities that carry gear you need to visit those places (like North Face and Patagonia) bore me a bit. They're full of camping equipment and porridge-coloured thermal underwear and wicking-away outer gear in exciting colours like maroon, grey and navy. Necessary items if you are about to trek the Laya Gasa in Bhutan, I'm sure. But it's all a bit samey-samey. I mean, where are the cheetah print thermals? The zebra print sleeping bags? The ocelot waterproof gators? Maybe the thinking is that such printed items would frighten the wildlife? Or maybe such adornment would be too flighty, fancy and silly for the serious business of trekking. I mean a serious trekker has dun-coloured boots, not leopard-printed ones. Right?

Desire

2010-03-26T10:03:00.006+10:00

Greetings one and all and welcome to Blog #26. Today I'd like to talk about Desire. But before I do that, some folks have been telling me that they are finding it hard to make a Comment on thiseehere blog. Right! I understand that to post a comment, you need to first Sign In. I can only imagine that this is to prevent some crazed lunatic who is merely passing through from leaping onto the commenting bandwagon and making inappropriate remarks without leaving a trail. Of course, there may be some other reason why blogger have this requirement but lets not ruin a good fantasy with facts.

I beg you. Please do not ask me any technical questions about posting comments - I share only, and in a parrot-like fashion, what I've been told by those who have commenting expertise. I do want your comments (especially the nice supportive ones) and that's the one hoop I understand you need to leap through to get to the blackboard. Of course, you can always contact me "off-blog" at jill@imlisteningnow.com. OH, and here's something interesting -- we had over 60 unique visits to http://www.imlisteningnow.com/ from this blog in the last 2 weeks. Google Analytics has a lot to answer for, doesn't it??

Desire. Not merely a streetcar or a cool song by U2 (or an "erotic masterpiece" by Luis Buenel, gawd, you'd need the extra strong stuff to watch that, wouldn't you?). And does Marlon Brando, star of the original screen version of A Streetcar Named Desire (pictured) need any explanation? Surely not. (and speaking of Marlon, that's another arm/leg/torso of the desire story, which we might leave for the after 10pm timeslot).

What I've learned about desire and shopping is that for some people the two an inextricably linked. These are people who when they hear about a challenge like this one I'm on, they nod and empathise and oooh and can't wait to visit the blog to share in my pain (presupposition: I am in pain. Why? Because I am not shopping for a year, of course!). In the shopping-desire realm, these are people in my "tribe". (Tribeism has become quite the in-thing to talk about of late, have you noticed?).

Then there's other people, who have no discernible connection between desire and shopping. I was reading someones ezine just yesterday who made this comment: "shopping has never been my favourite pastime at the best of times". Fascinating! Of course, I've been aware that some people don't like shopping, but it's been like knowing that the South American indigenous peoples practised aquaculture -- a piece of factual data that I had no direct or compelling interest in or reason to further explore.

Women, shopping and desire. Do women have a greater desire for clothes shopping, I wonder? I know a few men who enjoy clothes shopping, but only a few -- most of the men I know only enjoy shopping for specific things and those are usually to be found in hardware stores, sports stores, technology stores or car wrecking yards (yawn - have you ever been into a mowing store?? And by that I mean a store that sells equipment to mow your lawn. Gawd, how the staff stay awake all day is beyond me. See there's that desire thing again! It's probably quite fascinating to them). My anecdotal data about knowing 2 men who enjoy shopping for clothing is hardly what one could call a "representative sample", so I'm interested in who you know who enjoys shopping?? I know many more women who enjoy shopping than men. What about you? In researching this blog posting, I came cross this interesting bit of info: on average, women spend nearly twice as long per month shopping for clothing as men. Only twice? Really?

And here's something else quite fascinating (and I can't quite tell if it's insulting or not).

A "new study" has revealed that when women are in their "luteal phase" (approx 10 days before their period is due), they have less control over their shopping habits. The study goes on to say that a good shop during this time is a way that many women use to reduce pre menstrual stress.

Study Schmudy. Ok, ok, someone at a university (Hertfordshire) did the study so its probably not complete bunkum. But here's what's interesting to me. I wonder about the items of clothing that women are purchasing during this time, knowing a little first hand about the roller-coaster nature of a woman's "phases". Clothing purchased "in luteal" -- do they even fit 10 days later? Do the women even like them once they are through that unpredictable luteal phase? Or do they look at their in-luteal-purchases and go "eeeww, what was I thinking?"

The final word one researcher from this study insightfully made was that women purchase for emotional reasons which can create "buyers remorse" later. Ground breaking! (this is the thing about research studies, isn't it? They somehow attempt to legitimise common knowledge through the intellectual rigour that a study shrouds the data in. But I digress).

Desire is a very personal thing. What one person finds irresistible is repellent to another. And that applies not only to the activities we find desirable (shopping anyone? ok, alternative: driving nails under one's fingernails? -- It's a coin toss as to which one is more uninviting?) but to every aspect of our lives. How else can you explain someone wanting to marry Tommy Lee? Right?

Resist and Avoid (the Twin Towers to Defeat Temptation)

2010-03-21T10:12:00.003+10:00

G'day all and sundry. (who is sundry, I ask? and do they mind such an ambiguous title? Sun and Dry being two terms that are usually mutually exclusive, unless of course you are referring to the very strange weather we have been experiencing here on the Coast in the last 2.5 weeks).

It's all Ashley Fogel's fault! Or Helen's! Ok, ok - it's all ME! We are up to blog #25 and today, this gloriously ambiguous (weather-wise, at least) Sunday, I'd like to talk about Temptation, and ways in which it can be approached. I've been using Avoidance as my primary strategy for staying on the straight and narrow, shopping challenge wise that is. And it works a treat! Just yesterday I came face to face with how effective it is, and what happens when I employ something other than Avoid and Resist. I found myself in a pre-loved store in Peregian Beach (don't ask) that I occasionally frequent. Well, less occasionally and less frequently in the last 3 months of course, but prior to that, I'd go there - it's funky and quirky. I came across an Ashley Fogel animal print skirt. Now Ashley Fogel is a New Zealand designer whose clothing is of beautiful quality. This skirt had a straight cut to it, rather good for my shape. And it was animal print. And it was $25. I succumbed.

Dear reader, don't desert me now! It actually was something of a no-brainer purchase (if I conveniently forgot I was on this challenge), not only because of it's aforementioned qualities but these two compelling attributes as well:

it fit like a glove. Like it was made for me. Perfect around the waist (often a problem for me, not possessing one), and a super length (just below the knee, very Perry Mason's secretary) with an alluring 4-inch split up the centre so as not to induce a Geisha-like ambulatory style

my image advisor friend Helen has been exhorting me to wear more skirts/dresses, to better illustrate that I possess legs (in the first place) and to show them off, my pins being of showing-off qualities, apparently (if you can forgive the colour of them, resembling somewhat the surface of the moon. With freckles).

So, there I was. Faced with temptation. And I followed the discerning advice given many years prior by that sagacious philosopher, Oscar Wilde who famously quipped that "I can resist everything except temptation" and "the only way to handle temptation is to yield to it". Ah, no truer word spoken! I'm actually a fairly disciplined person.... I can sit and do something I don't really like to do, knowing that I'll find great pleasure in accomplishing it and seeing it finished (ironing comes to mind as an example here). I did my MBA over 6 years through correspondence, requiring me to sit and study evenings when Melrose Place was on (thank god for video recorders, which is what we used back then, kids).

But in that moment, temptation won out, and I was left holding the bag. Literally. And it had an Ashley Fogel animal print skirt in it, which fitted me perfectly and filled a gap (identified by an expert and everything!) in my wardrobe.

Turning out Temptation. In preparation for writing this post, I did some research on temptation. Movements that are very familiar with the insidious nature of temptation, and exhort their members/followers to resist and avoid it are religious groups and anyone with Anonymous after the first word in their organisation title. I came across this religious article, with a 5 point strategy for dealing with temptation. It quite fascinated me, and not only because each of the strategies begins with an R word (and I quote from the article verbatim here, I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried):

Recognise your tendency toward sin

Run away from temptation

Resist with the word of Truth

Refocus with praise

Repent quickly when you fail

I particularly like #2. It has a Monty Python-esque quality to it. And worth noting that nowhere does it suggest that you stay in the presence of your temptation and metaphorically (or literally) beat your head against something solid and unyielding as a way of overcoming said temptation. That kind of strategy will give you not much more than a huge egg on your head. And who needs that?

It works, why else would we do it? The whole Name-Your-Temptation Anonymous movement is also based on Resist and Avoid approach. AA, NarcAnon, Gamblers Anon and all the other Anonymous family of 12-steppers, does not suggest that you spend time in bars, limbering up your capacity to be in that environment and not drink. Even Al Anon, which supports the loved ones of alcoholics, suggests the use of avoidance if application of its opposite becomes too painful or spirit reducing. The Anonymi suggest you avoid situations in which your chose poison is available, if at all possible. If you can't avoid, then move to Step 2 - resist.

So, I'm convinced that there's something to this Resist and Avoid approach. When I started the challenge, 3-ish months ago, I had this idea that maybe the real challenge was to stop wanting. To banish desire for shopping from my repertoire of Things I Desire. I don't know if that's the goal. Appetites harnessed may be a more realistic, and a more human, enterprise.

Resist and Avoid as vehicles toward the challenges destinations are ruthlessly effective and to be employed when required. Why resist resistance? That's just crazy and unnecessary. Plus you end up looking like a Celebrity Rehab contestant, which is not just crazy and unnecessary, but with bad hair to boot. And who needs that, right?

[and for those not up with the latest news, www.imlisteningnow.com is ready to receive you as a valued visitor!]

Toddlers and Tiaras

2010-03-17T14:48:00.003+10:00

Howdie and here we are at blog #24. Canya believe we're just over 3 months into the challenge? I was reflecting on that the other day when I went into one of my favourite clothing stores on the Coast here, Zambezi, and they were having a (gasp!) s-a-l-e. Yikes! I got my gift voucher and got outa there. I did note something fabulous -- a giraffe print cotton/silk overshirt by Marc Cain. Over $700 original price, now 50% off. Wasn't quite as bad as my worst challenge nightmare (if it had been, it would have been reduced to $1. oh, ok $100). Anyway, I got out of there without a scratch, although I confess that I was discussing possible birthday presents for my Big Birthday month of April with someone shortly after that, and I did happen to mention the Marc Cain overshirt to them. (they were practically desperate for ideas on what to get me, I tell you).

So what are we talking about today? Well, I thought we might delve into the billion-dollar topic of make up.

When reality isn't real. Reality television has a lot to answer for. The fact that we know the names of people like Kardashian for one thing. Not to mention watching celebrities try to make a go of running a hotel in southern France, or try to master an incredibly difficult things like being married. I mean, really! There are some fascinating shows though. One of them that I have occasionally stumbled across is Toddlers and Tiaras. (again with the punctuation! Sorry if I've missed a whatsit in that last sentence). Toddlers and Tiaras chronicles the week's lead up to whichever beauty pageant is being showcased in that particular episode. I have noted that many of these beauty pageants are held in the southern states of the United States. I have no idea if that is representative or not, but certainly Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Kentucky seem to have many pageants held within their borders. The toddlers & tiaras shows I have watched focus on young pageant participants -- and by young, I'm talking around 6 years old. (which is not really a "toddler"... although "6 year olds and Tiaras" doesn't really sound that hip, does it?)

When is too young? Ah, the perennial question, which could be asked about drinking, voting, going to war, sex, driving, and - I'll add to the mix -- wearing makeup. All the important milestones in life. These girls are made up to within an inch of their peachy faced lives. They have more make up than Ru Paul's Drag Race contestants, and often take about as much time to apply (hours!). The end result is they look like a combination of a porcelain life size doll and a scaled down Dolly Parton. And their hair. Or should I say hay-are (it's definitely a two-syllable word, they way its done). It adds feet to their height it's so BIG. I look at these tots and wonder where the child is. They are so adult-ised, they don't even look like children. These pageants are often called "full glitz" pageants, and makeup is only a part of the preparation -- fake tans, false teeth (called 'flippers'), dance/singing lessons, and the dresses. OMG, you should see them. They look like the dresses that Qwpee dolls wore on top of the spare toilet rolls, except with extra ruffles and bling on them. Is this too young for girls to start wearing makeup?

My first time. We'll by-pass all the other "too young" categories and go straight to make-up, this being a PG-rated blog. My mum bought me my first bit of makeup when I was about 6. It was not as part of my role as contestant into a beauty pageant, I might quickly add. I don't think Queensland (or even the country) had beauty pageants back then, and I don't think they have too many more now. But I digress. I was about 6. Ok, we were in a department store and they had a display of cheap lipsticks in a cardboard box at the checkout counter. I may have been angling for a lipstick, or I may have been staring longingly at them. Knowing me, it would be hard to imagine my mouth not being engaged, being the little talker that I was (well, am).

My first real proper time. But that wasn't my true introduction to makeup, because I didn't start wearing makeup, like, "properly" until I was in my late teens. My mum arranged a makeup lesson for me with my aunt Evelyn, who was a Nutri Metics consultant. I was 14. This was one of the most excellent things I recall from what was otherwise a fairly hideous year (not being a kid anymore, and certainly not being close to approaching womanhood). Evelyn showed me how to apply makeup so I did not look like a clown or Tammy Faye Baker. She told me about blending (so the makeup doesn't fall off your face where your chin meets your neck). She told me a bit about colour (go easy on it). She told me about using makeup to highlight, not conceal. That was my first true introduction to "proper" make up -- the products and its application -- and I remember it to this day.

Every year, you say? I love make up. I enjoy wearing it, and shopping for it... I have spent hours in Sephora, the US makeup store - trying on this and that makeup. In the 10 minutes that I practised as an image consultant, back in 1999, I would advise my female clients to review their makeup every year. Don't just keep applying it the same way, year in and year out. For a start, new products emerge that you'll miss out on, if you don't keep at least half an eye on the makeup industry. Like mineral make up -- what a fantastic advancement that has been! No more liquid makeup! Fantastic! The last time I had my makeup reviewed was in Hawaii (yes, darling, fabulous it was too). I went to a Bare Escentuals counter (complete with improper spelling) and had a gorgeous Hawaiian young woman do my makeup. She didn't pressure me to buy, and I got some new tips on how to keep my makeup fresh and "me".

We could talk for hours about make up and all the pros and cons of it, and what it has and hasn't done for women (and drag queens). But in the interests of keeping you all awake and allowing you to get on with your day, I'll sign off with my perspective. 6 is too young to start wearing that kind of makeup. Even if it is Full Glitz. Right?

(you knew I wouldn't forget, didn't you??) And if you haven't visited our beautifully renovated working website: http://imlisteningnow.com -- please do! We're thrillareno'ed at how it's come up and the response to the reLaunch last week.

Colour!

2010-03-12T11:49:00.004+10:00

Greetings. This is blog #23 and today we're talking about colour. Or color, depending on where you live in the world. By the way, has anyone noticed how lacking in punctuation skills I am? I do apologise to those readers who actually know about punctuation and find my lackadaisical (or is it more oblivious?) approach to it galling or annoying.

I've been Done. So, colour! Many women have heard of the colour system. These colour systems have been around for centuries, but it was in the early 1980s that they became popular, and women everywhere were "having their colours done". This entailed going to see a "colour consultant" (and not one who worked out of a paint store) who would analyse and then categorise you into one of four categories: Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring. You were given a colour swatch and instructed to purchase only clothing in colours that matched your colour swatch. So, if you were designated an Autumn, say, then your colour swatch would have Autumn colours on it, and you were to henceforth and forthwith to only purchase Autumn coloured clothing. And any non-Autumn clothing in your wardrobe was to be sternly appraised and hopefully dispatched from your wardrobe, never to be worn on your tawny body ever again.

And we're doing this because...??? The whole idea behind colour systems and consultancies is that we each have a set of individual characteristics based on our personal colouring -- our eyes are a certain colour, our skin has a certain tone to it, our hair has certain colour qualities to it (which, if you are a rock star or follow in their footsteps, may change with some frequency). All these things -- the colour of eyes, skin, hair -- combine to form our personal colouring. The idea of colour analysis is to put clothing on our bodies that harmonises with our individual colouring . Keyword: harmonises. So, if you have Autumn colouring, say, and you wear Spring colours - well, you'll look bad. Or not as good as you could. Or so unwell people will wonder if you have contracted a serious and chronic illness.

Don't fence me in! I know a number of women who don't believe in the colour system. When pressed (something I do only on unusual occasions, ahem!), their objection to "being done" (from a colour perspective, I mean) is they don't want to be boxed in. They don't want to be told their colours are a-b-c, which means that colours x-y-z are off limits to them. They are possibly like some men who baulk at the idea of marriage -- it's not that they don't love the one woman in the white dress walking down the church aisle, it's just that they fear from being deprived of all the others. In the bar. In the gym. Well, you get the idea.

Who me? I've not had this experience, myself. Knowing my colour direction is Warm Light (more on that in a sec, hold up and we'll get to it soon) has been positively liberating. It makes shopping so easy peasy lemon squeasy -- I know the stuff to avoid, and the stuff to gravitate to immediately. A rack of fuchsia clothing I know is something to stay away from; a rack or orange, turquoise and sun yellow gear is something I gravitate to. That's when I was going shopping, of course. Not an experience the last 3 months has afforded me. Naturally.

Am I really a season? The four-category system of colour has been superseded by more sophisticated systems. And thank goodness for it. I mean, does it seem plausible that every person in the world could fit into one of only four categories? Nope, not to me either. Although some people I've noticed around and about the place could quite reasonably be categorised as a Tsunami or at least Exceptionally Windy.

The colour system that I reckon is useful is the one my pal and image advisor extraordinaire, Helen uses (check her out at http://www.imagequest.com.au/) which has 18 categories based 3 dimensions (it takes a mathematics professor to work out all the possible combinations of these 3 dimensions to come up with the 18 categories):

Depth. Is your colouring what's called "deep" which roughly translates to dark -- tanned or dark skin, dark eyes, dark hair. Or is your colouring more toward the light side - fair skin, pale eyes, light hair. It is something of a continuum.
Temperature. Ok, are we on a cooking show now? No, this has to do with Warm and Cool.... this is where having some actual skill in colour systems comes in handy, as some of us wouldn't know warm hair colour vs. cool if we were hit over the head with a L'Oreal box. But if we cast our collective memories back to when the Royal Family was not either divorced, dead or disgraceful, we would remember Fergie (warm -- red hair, warm brown eyes, tawny skin) and Princess Di (cool - silvery blond hair, cool blue eyes, pink toned skin).
Clarity. Sounds like a character from the TV series Deadwood I know ("Ma naime's Clarity. Clarity Charity Calamity Hickok. Nace to meet yer"). What this actually means is how clear/bright your colouring is, or how muted/soft/blended it is. So, if your hair, skin and eyes are all roughly "in the middle" -- brown, brown and brown, say... then you might have muted colouring. If your hair, skin and eyes are all really different colourings -- say jet black hair, violet blue eyes and pale skin (haven't I just described Elizabeth Taylor in her gorgeous Cat On a Hot Tin Roof glory?), then your colouring may be described as clear or bright.

Ok, that's Colouring 101. Entire books have been written about this topic, not to mention endless articles in magazines and the Internet about it. "Doing" yourself -- trying to analyse your own colouring -- has a 9.7 degree of difficulty, so I would strongly recommend that if you're interested in this -- go see a professional. Whatever you pay for the consultation will come back to you in spades. Think of all those mistakes you wont be making at the shops!

Photo finish. The photo above was taken this morning in my wardrobe, with the colour wheel that I carry around with me all the time (not that I've needed it recently. Not having been shopping in the last 3 months. Naturally). Those with penetratingly clear vision and/or enormous screens may be able to see that the colours of (some of) my jackets are indeed to be found on the Image Quest colour wheel. It works! I tell you, it really works!

Listening Jill (vs Whispering Jack). And finally, today is a big day in other news. Our I'm Listening Now website (http://www.imlisteningnow.com/) has been ReLaunched. Colour me happy, but isn't today a day for celebration! You can read the back story of this momentous occasion by visiting our blog page, and check our celebration prices which go until Monday morning. And if you're real interested, I can tell you why turquoise is the chosen colour for our logo. Not by accident, of course. Right?

International Womens Day

2010-03-09T12:43:00.005+10:00

G'day and welcome to Blog #22. Today is International Women's Day. Who knew huh? Well, nearly 300 women at the breakfast I attended sure did. My friend Peta (aren't we gorgeous? And modest. That's us, left, at the breakfast this morning) invited me to join her table, a perfect vantage point from which to view the room full of women of all ages, sizes and shapes. And with a wide variety of attitudes about and aptitudes for style, if what was visible to the naked eye and the casual observer was anything to go by.

Duly Different? You know, I find this positively fascinating. There's lots of talk about how different the sexes are. The guest speaker at this breakfast herself talked about how different men and women are, especially when it comes to connection and conversation. The meandering path that women often take when they talk together, vs. the bullet-point approach to discussion and debate that men often take. Whilst these broad brush strokes have a ring of truth to them (and garnered lots of laughs during the talk this morning, largely due to the performance skills of the speaker), they don't tell the whole picture.

Take this morning. Even though this was a business women's event, the interpretation of what is appropriate for a business breakfast were as wide as the grand canyon. Everything from wafty skirts with flat, Roman style sandals and spaghetti strap tops, through to fitted dresses teamed with killer heels. And everything in between. There were navy blue suits, a-line dresses, wraps over crinkled skirts, satin shirts with pencil skirts, bare arms, long-sleeve wrap tops, full length skirts, shorts, tailored pants, jeans. Even a school uniform. No board shorts or bikinis, but most other modes of dress appeared to be represented. You can't get much more 'different' than that, right?

A basis point or two. A woman from one of Australia's "Big 4" banks was there in her uniform - a snazzy combination of a black pencil skirt with a satin-esque (shiny) black short-sleeve shirt - who knew NAB was going sexy? Maybe its their way of keeping the customers focused on something other than their rising mortgages repayments? Clevah.

Don't pin me! We were all given purple ribbons (with the "office of women" printed on them) to commemorate the occasion. My major concern was that it didn't match what I was wearing and the safety pin would damage my silk shirt. Peta, a veteran of International Women's Day, had prepared her outfit so that the purple ribbon coordinated with what she was wearing. Now that's what I call planning ahead! Right?

The Allure of Pre Loved

2010-03-06T10:26:00.010+10:00

Greetings from a rather soggy Sunshine Coast. We have had rain for nearly one week now. When this happens, I feel so sorry for the holidaymakers whom I am imagining are holed up in some two-bedroom apartment, looking out of their sliding glass doors onto a small swimming pool accumulating on their balcony with a fine mist of never-ending rain blurring their view. Those facing the rear wall of the adjacent apartment block may find this an improvement in their view; others may find their view has been depreciated somewhat.

This is Blog #21. And I'd like to share with you today, fabulous readers, my love of pre-loved shopping. Or as the Americans call it, consignment shopping. My photography tendencies are nothing but quirky, and the photo accompanying this blog post was taken almost exactly one year ago in Santa Barbara , a very lifelike town in southern California. It's known for movie types and wine country (brilliantly combined in the movie Sideways, which if you haven't seen it... well, I could digress for the entire posting about that film, but I shall resist. Except to say: see it!). I stumbled across two consignment stores in Santa Barbara (and we were only visiting for a couple of hours - so howzat? My laser-like honing device for consignment stores is something to behold. I can spot one from a moving vehicle at 100 paces) neither of which offered up anything for me on the days I visited, but both were still worth the look.

What I love about consignment store shopping is it's like a treasure hunt. You never know what gems you are going to uncover. The underlying great thing about consignment stores is they are (almost always) full of quality clothing. They aren't like thrift or charity stores, where the quality of the clothing can be variable and many of their clothes started their life new in discount department stores. Consignment stores carry designer label quality clothing in great condition. I have purchased many a loved item of clothing, sometimes purchased NWT (New With Tags) - never been worn.

The downside to consignment shopping is sizing. If you find something you love and its not in your size, you can't ask for them to search "out the back" for the same item in your size. I have walked out chagrined from many a consignment store having found something gorgeous (usually animal print) in a size too small. Things too big can usually be altered (although depending on the alterations, they can cost as much or if not more than the original purchase). Things too small - well, short of an amputation, can't be altered to fit. (and the body parts that would need to be amputated are generally considered vital, or at least, desirable, to keep).

Dallas. In Dallas in August 09, I found two consignment stores, both of which I visited twice, once with my friend Katherine and her aunt Helen, where we spent a fun-filled few hours trying things on and modelling for one another. (just like guys do in hardware stores and car parts wrecking yards, right?). Visiting these stores was such fun that I had another whack at it on my own. Well, Dan (husband and driver for the day) was waiting outside with a newspaper. These stores - Re-threads and Clotheshorse Anonymous (great name huh?) - provided hours of entertainment. And the thing was - they were so much larger than the consignment stores in Australia (which btw, are often called pre-loved clothing stores).

The downside to these Dallas consignment stores was many of the items were in sizes too small for me - American size 4 - 6 seemed to be the size of much of the items in store. This is roughly the size of a appropriate-weight-to-height-ratio 10 year old boy, and I can only assume that many of the Dallas diva's who consign their clothing to these stores are thin as rails. I did find some fabulous items including:

an Escada silk animal print shirt - NWT (never been worn) - $50. Equivalent new would be over $500
two pairs of designer jeans, both my size and both hemmed to the right leg length - amazing! $20 each. Equivalent new (including alterations to fit me) would be over $120 each
the most amazing pair of animal print slides, faux-patent (wanky fashion talk for "shiny"), with diamante detailing on top. Never been worn - $25. Priceless (if I were a pair of shoes, I'd be these)

Pre and now Me Loved. Four of my gorgeous animal print jackets and 3 turquoise jackets were purchased pre-loved and they're some of my favourite pieces. (and if you are wondering, the answer is "of course a gal needs 3 turquoise jackets when she lives in tropical Queensland". and the other answer is "yes, I do have more than 3"). I can't name all the beautiful items in my closet that I love that previously belonged to someone else, there's so many. These are different to sale items. Pre-loved clothing are like foster children who never found the right home - until now (well behaved, designer foster children, I might add.)

I have found consignment stores tucked away on side streets, and inside cute little locals shopping arcades (which is where the Santa Barbara one was) - they are often off the beaten track, and almost always worth a visit. The USA in particular is a great place to go consignment shopping, if you have the patience and time (and curiosity. And don't mind being chagrined from time to time when a stunning gotta-have-it piece is too small for you. A good chagrine won't kill ya, I've found.)

And then there is the money....The final great thing about consignment shopping - apart from the magical mystery tour it takes you on, is the pricing. You can find sensational, quality, stylish, unique items at greatly reduced prices. I have a pair of Fendi high heels, that new would be out of my price range, that I purchased for $120.

So, gotta love consignment shopping.

I'm Listening. Really! I've also started blogging for my other enterprise, you know, the money making one -- I'm Listening Now (http://www.imlisteningnow.com/) which has finally finished its renovation period! Haaah! I just hope I don't get my posts all mixed up and start blogging suchlike: "the other day I was listening to an animal print jacket and a pair of ballet flats and the most amazing thing happened....". Right?

Three Kinds of Shoppers

2010-03-01T10:21:00.004+10:00

Welcome to Blog #20.... My average seems to be slipping -- reckon it has something to do with the Waiting for Inspiration that amateur writers might be stricken with. This is just me hallucinating, but I wonder if that's the thing that separates professionals from rank amateurs -- professionals like inspiration, they prefer to have it, but they keep writing even if there's none to be found (did you look in the sock drawer? behind the couch? in the fridge? no inspiration to be found? none whatsoever? ah well, sit down and write anyway...). I've been waiting for inspiration to knock on my door or hit me on the head or in some other way make its presence known, over the last week or so. I even sat down on Friday and gazed longingly at the screen for a few minutes, hoping that if I simulated a writing situation, inspiration might fly in the window and sit on my shoulder. Nope. So I'm writing anyway.

On the weekend, I found myself in a huge shopping centre and was observing the shoppers I encountered. I talked about this before (see blog #4) and I've refined the categories into which shoppers seems to fall:

Taskers. These are people who know what they're there for. They are coming to the shopping centre to find and purchase The Thing. They prefer to shop alone and therefore like to avoid bringing shoppers #2 or #3 with them on their shopping expedition, but sometimes it can't be helped. They have a goal - they are coming to get It, they will not be deterred or distracted from this task, and once they have It, they are going home (or at least, away from the shopping centre). These people can be identified by their purposeful walk, their laser-like eye movements, and their uncanny ability to avoid the physical pitfalls that can befall other shoppers, such as bumping into one of those triple-baby carriers, or getting caught behind very slow dawdling shoppers, or being snared by one of those temporary stall holders who want to sandpaper and massage your hands with some fantastic new product dredged from the bottom of the Red Sea (that never seems to ever get used if you fall into the trap of actually buying it). These people are not actually fixated but they are focused.
Day Trippers. These are the people who see shopping as an outing. They are almost always clustered in groups of 2 or more and fall into two sub-categories: (a) teenagers. Groups of girls, groups of boys, or mixed groups is how you'll find the teenagers who day-trip at shopping centres. You wouldn't really want to have an up-close-and-personal encounter with any of these groups, as they all possess rather green social skills and their interactions can leave you wondering if you, yes you, were quite that awful when you were their age (yes, you probably were). If you actually spot any of these people interacting with one another, as opposed to interacting with their technological devices, you should stop and capture the moment in your memory. Often they are texting one another, with such profound missives as "OMG!" and "LOL!". You wont find them in stores such as Robin's Kitchen, Howards Storage World, Godfreys Vacuum Cleaners or the Cigar Store. You will find them in abundance in anything selling technology, anything selling cheap nasty disposable clothing made by under-age workers from third world countries, and anything selling food with zero nutritional value. The other group in the Day Tripper category is (b) women. Often these are women who are bringing a shopper from the third group (below) -- because their good-for-nothing husband couldn't babysit for a day, one lousy morning with the girls, I ask you! -- or they may be older women who are having a Day Of It... some morning tea, some meandering, some lunch, some meandering, maybe a movie, some meandering. Heaven help you if you get stuck behind the older women Day Trippers - it can take you hours to get out from behind them as their sensory acuity for other shoppers seem to decrease as all their attention is focused on each other and the lovely time they are having of it.
Prisoners. These are people who do not wish to be at the shopping centre at all, and are only there because they are with one of the aforementioned groups, usually a person who falls into Category #1. There are two kinds of prisoners: (a) children under elbow height, often incarcerated in a wheeled device of some sort, from which their faces turn radish-red as they bleat out their protests to an unyielding (and seemingly unhearing) ambulatory person. They can sometimes be found being tugged along in a shoulder-wrenching action as their feet drag along the floor. The other day, I heard one such prisoner denounce her captor thus: "I don't like you anymore!" to which stony silence and an even more intense scrutiny of the magazine he was reading was his austere response. This was shortly followed by cries of "Mummy! I don't like Daddy anymore!" as a harassed-looking woman approached this sad huddled mass and proceeded to whisk them away to places unknown. Away from me was all I really cared about. The other kind of prisoner is (b) men, usually husbands (what boyfriend would put up with this?). The experienced ones will be wielding a newspaper and are adept at seeking out the seating provided by some shopping centres for such occasions. The inexperienced stand around in loose disconsolate groupings outside clothing stores, shoe stores, kitchen stores.... well, all stores really except perhaps Godfreys Vacuum World and the sports stores. They wear a facial expression connoting slight despair coupled with mild resentment -- I imagine the soundtrack inside their heads runs something something like: "will this ever be over, and how did I get myself talked into being here, again, on a crowded Saturday morning? I can't decide if I hate her, me or my life at this moment more....".

So, that's my wrap on the kinds of shoppers you often encounter in large, fakely lit and aired, Gruen Transfer designed shopping centres. (oh, and if you're interested, the photo above was taken a few years ago in Hong Kong, the land of Extremis Shoppingus). It makes for an interesting sociological study, even if it just a cursory one as I got in, got The Thing, and got out. Right?